JUDITH WARREN, PhD
As a psychologist and artist, I find the human form endlessly beautiful and fascinating. Usually I work with live models in my art work and live patients in my practice, but coronavirus has disrupted all that. The pandemic has been terribly devastating, especially here in New York City, where I live and where so many have died.
Now I have had to see all my patients virtually, a paradoxical requirement, because they are obviously farther away, not in my office, maybe not even in the same city, yet feel very close, especially when seeing each other online, via facetime, zoom, skype, etc. Then our faces seem to be only a foot or two apart, much closer than when they sat with me in person. Similarly, I have had to work virtually, from online or print images, in order to paint.
The pandemic has altered my view of both patients and models, both literally and figuratively. So much has shifted; our illusion of safety and normalcy has been threatened; our sense of both time and space has altered— all issues that art deals with.
Feeding the Hungry
(Oil Paints on Canvas, 18” x 18”)
About a month into the epidemic, really at the height of its impact here in New York, with hundreds perishing each day, I began a Covid series both to document what we are experiencing and to help regulate my own anxiety. Painting has always been a time of deep focus and concentration when I think of nothing but what I am doing. I decided to celebrate in oil some of the heroes of our time —the doctors, nurses, and other first responders and essential workers. Using photos and my imagination, I cobbled together various images, one of which is the submitted piece. It is meant to represent the generous side of human nature which has emerged abundantly at this perilous time.