Not Just a number: Covid Memorial Portraits

The “Not Just a Number” portrait series is a response to grief. Having experienced gut-wrenching losses personally and using art as a means of coping with grief, I became inspired to reach out to others experiencing the loss of a loved one through an unnecessary circumstance. After months of watching the covid death toll climb, and thinking of all the families who were unable to hold funerals or even grieve with their families, I decided to reach out to grieving families through online grief support networks and offer them the opportunity to collaborate in this series. Each participating family provided photos, handwritten text, and completes a questionnaire about their loved one, and were encouraged to include their family and friends to contribute. Once materials were received, I created a portrait using their text and photos, drawing entirely with text, and using their handwritten text as background. Families received a digital copy of the artwork to print and share. The goal of this body of work was to illustrate the humanity behind the number of covid deaths, while also offering grieving families kindness, support, and a unique opportunity to come together at a distance with their families to honor the memory of their loved one through a collaborative art project. This portrait series is completed. Submissions are no longer being accepted.