Viral Load

A suite of ten mixed-media drawings on canvas, bearing witness to the cumulative, collective loss of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Partially dissolved snippets of medical text and diagrams of the SARS CoV-2 virus enclose larger-than-life-size figures, positioned in gestures that signal states of emotional and physical distress. Each painting: 40" H x 30" W, charcoal, acrylic paint, water soluble graphite, colored pencil on canvas, 2020.

The Viral load series was featured at the “Never Not in Crisis: Forms of Calamity in Catastrophic Times Symposium”, Myers Foundation, Department of Art History, Northwestern University and Arizona State University, in conjunction with a solo exhibition at 6018 North Center for Experimental Arts and Culture, Chicago, 2022. It was selected as the cover image for the "Blood and Thunder" Journal of the Oklahoma University College of Medicine, 2021. The Viral load series was developed in association with "CoVid-19: Critical/Creative Studies in Music, Image, and Text, Ethics and Humanities", Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 2020.

Studio View: Viral Load, Versions 1-10.

About this Series

Viral Load, Bearing Witness to the Pandemic is a series of ten mixed media drawings on canvas, centered on the emotional consequences of cumulative, collective loss experienced during the CoVid-19 pandemic. Figures, poised in dissolution between translucent spirit and visible bone, rest in gestures of exhaustion, isolation and illness.

Vulnerable nude bodies wear the minimal “personal protective gear” of mask and gloves. Splatters and washes suggestive of invisible airborne transmissions, body fluids and viral particles provide muted color to gestural charcoal marks. Arc lines visually link each isolated figure in the series to the others, with implications of disrupted and virtual social networks. Difficult to read cursive text, written using water soluble graphite, includes blue hyperlinks and footnotes, indicating both personal web searches for information and evolving medical research.

Psychology shows that information processing and rational thinking are difficult to maintain when the emotionally reactive, instinctive mind is triggered. Schematic diagrams of the SARS CoV-2 virus responsible for CoVid-19, along with fragmented medical descriptions of pathophysiology, symptoms and complications of infection, merge imagery of cognitive “data overload” with the body language of emotional trauma and physical distress.

On a personal note: Before transitioning to a career in the arts, the artist's professional background included medical training, with several years of hands-on experience caring for the sick and dying.