Master Artworks in COVID Times by Donald Patten

A drawing series

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This art was selected for our ekphrastic issue. If you are a writer who is inspired by what you see here, please consider submitting your words here.

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Cafe Terrace at COVID Capacity

Mask Gleaners

The COVID Nightmare

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From the Artist:

“Almost overnight, COVID-19 changed the way people interact with each other, and with our own bodies. We live our lives in vulnerability during this historically significant time of disaster. The initial phases of the pandemic are behind us, but the virus remains and continues to be dangerous. The societal trauma this pandemic has caused will be remembered and felt by the those that lived through it for the foreseeable future. In the past, master painters, would depict historically significant disasters that happened to them as a way to cope. Artists of the 19th century depicted hardships and trauma in the wake of the industrial Revolution that began the formation of our modern world. As an artist that is learning the techniques of masters, I have the opportunity to create long-lasting visual information that depicts the trauma of this pandemic. Therefore, I made a series of drawings that represent my experiences in COVID modernity live by representing past masterpieces that depict the embodied experience of trauma.”