During COVID quarantines and lockdowns, I collected donations of clothing that roused feelings of desperation and depression—textile artifacts that people wore habitually while almost never leaving their homes. Each piece of clothing in )))ECHO))) was dyed with indigo, deconstructed and composed as a part of a triangular pattern. Triangles and cyanotype images represent the Eye of Providence—the pandemic pushed some believers and mystics to a safe place of denial, or faith without fear, where science held little value. Religion seemed incompatible with an existential perspective, and so seemed our society. Using the Coronavirus Corpus, I found only 76 news articles in the English language between mid-March and mid-September which mentioned “existential” in the context of COVID. All but a few of those articles referenced existential threats to business or political systems, bypassing the profound existential questions this period raised for humanity. As grief and depression became more palpable, the conversation around these deeper questions began to expand.

Though completed in 2021, DISTANCED was primarily constructed in 2020 following )))ECHO))). During this time, I was fortunate to have a private studio as part of my residency with the Tempe Studio Artist Program. While so many were in lockdown and unable to access creative spaces, I was able to drive every day to work in solitude in my studio. The physical distance between myself, loved ones, and strangers afforded me the luxury of diving deep into my practice after a long hiatus. )))ECHO))) speaks to the desperation of the time while DISTANCED speaks to reconfiguration and refreshing new possibilities.