The Pandemic Lens^®

It was the time of year we most look forward to—early fall, when we would typically travel to Europe or take a cottage on outer Cape Cod. Clearly, our original thoughts of Nordic adventures were out. And with my husband already more than three months out of work, could we realistically splurge on a couple…

For the past few years my work has been influenced by the time I spent in a part-time job at local Home Depots.  As I walked around the store, in my mind’s eye, I saw colors, shapes, patterns, lighting and objects that came together to create what I called a “paintable moment.” I photographed these…

These images are from a body of drawings and paintings that I created during lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Nightwalker series pastel drawings record a passing sense of myself during an isolated evening walk.       Walking has always been a key activity for me. My working process has begun to change…

Although I almost always paint in oils, during quarantine I had the strange urge to use watercolors for the first time in more than eight years. With all of the noise and stress in the world, switching to a new medium gave me a sense of calm and focus that I really needed. Quarantine Portrait…

(This post refers to works by my late husband, Bill Oakes, a visionary, educator, and prolific painter.)   It’s a good thing Bill didn’t live in these surreal times. He was so sensitive and always looked for the best in people. He would have been shocked and saddened by what is happening, as are many…

People have different ways of looking at the world, and these views influence their perceptions of risks, benefits and costs and shape how they act. We’ve seen this in alarming degrees with the current pandemic. Historically, we, as global citizens, have woven a spiral of silence over climate and race issues. The term “spiral of…

(This post refers to works by my late husband, Bill Oakes, a visionary, educator, and prolific painter.) Halloween has come and gone but I’m still pondering how much scarier this year is than last year. The darkness enveloping everyone, due to the pandemic and multiple situations causing chaos, makes us all yearn for more light…

Covid-19 has provided me with an opportunity to reassess process and subject matter in a number of ways. At the start of the pandemic, my practice mainly consisted of attempting to evoke the sensation of sunlight passing through the leaves of trees. This series, entitled komorebi, is based on the Japanese word that describes this…

August was hot and dry, as every year in Boston gets hotter and drier. Leaves on the trees are tinged with yellow long before summer is even over. The pandemic has pushed climate change into the background, despite a surging season of fires, hurricanes, floods and drought across the country. All over New England, weakened…

Previous to the UK going into lockdown, I was planning to start a new series of work. But having taken delivery of canvases and paper, I found the country shut down. Being a Type 1 diabetic, I am in the group most vulnerable to complications from Covid, so I went straight into isolation. It was…