Cover Me: a visual essay
I live in Brooklyn, New York. Right now, like many other New Yorkers and people all over the world, I am inside, wondering what outside will look like tomorrow and the next day and the next. As an artist, I respond the only way I know how, through art. By making portraits of the people I encounter on the near-empty streets of my neighborhood. To me, a face covered by a medical mask will never be a familiar enough sight to just walk past and not feel like there is something really really wrong with this world. Mainly, what struck me most, without noses and mouths visible, was the expression in people's eyes. I saw anger, sadness, fear, anxiety, confusion, humor. All of humanity condensed in the organ of sight which is the only thing we can really communicate with nowadays. How long will it last? A couple more weeks? Months? And how will all this distancing effect us in the future when there is no virus? As New Yorkers know, staying 6 feet away from another person is