Distance and Measures, March to June 2020

6’X6’

Acrylic and mixed media on raw canvas

I’ve had a grid painting in my ideas cue for some time. When the Covid-19 quarantine came in March of 2020, the Zoom screen, a grid format became a communication portal. My piece explores the human body as a yard stick. Standard measurements are based on the average male body: an inch = the distance between the first and second knuckle of the forefinger; the foot = 12 inches; a yard (3 feet) = the distance from the nose to the outstretched arm. Both arms outstretched = 6 feet.  I used a 6’X6’ foot raw canvas gridded in 1 foot squares.

Two squares are collaged newsprint from the front page of the New York Time, May 24, 2020, the week the death toll from the Covid-19 reached 100,000.  With the other squares, I am exploring isolation and adaptability. I see the human form with arms outstretched as a magic wingspan within which we would evolve and hopefully resolve the conflict of distance (isolation) and measures (exploration) that the stay at home order and 6 foot social distance measures would bring about.