Watercolor Portraits: 2020

Portraits from the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic.

At the end of 2019, I became interested in doing portraits of friends living in and around Denver.

However, as the coronavirus outbreak was being reported from China in December of 2019, spreading to other cities, and shut-downs began in March 2020, there were expressions of uncertainty by people around the world.

By February of 2020, I had already met with, and spoke with, and started working on Alison’s portrait (below).

Yet, I didn’t know at the time of starting this project, that these sessions were invaluable to me during 2020.

While practicing social-distancing, we (each of these people in these drawings and myself) met at parks, and had conversations about each other’s lives.

When connecting face-to-face was physically difficult, and the decreased social interaction was causing stress and anxiety, these interviews were momentary ways to connect.

During, and/or towards the end of our conversations, we also practiced meditation together.

These meditations allowed me to, at least it felt like to me, take more honest photographs that became references for my watercolor portraits.

These meditations were also opportunities to understand more, the non-dual nature of reality.

Summary

I started this project in 2020. I asked my friends to be the subject of these portraits.
When we look in the mirror, we see a reflection of our physical body.
What we don’t see, is the unseeable - our own universes, a world filled with the richness of our thoughts and feelings that create our reality, what’s important to us, our culture, life missions, professions, loved ones, and dreams for the future.
And when we meet, there is a potential for these universes to collide. An opportunity to honor and cherish the things that come alive in ourselves and more importantly, in each other.
By looking inwards and cherishing the world in each of us, it becomes possible to make the things that we cannot see, more visible.