Ill-donned mask

After getting all of my artwork finished (with frames and wiring) and packed-up for my up-coming solo exhibition at 4 Elements Studio (25+ pieces), I took a short break from my studio (mostly to grade 75+ exams from my students, and to work on some music stuff). This weekend, I went down to the studio to clean-up and organize for the next round of creativity. I ended-up doing this small piece rather unexpectedly and quickly. I had been experimenting a little bit with multiple images of the H1N1 virus that were from a cover of Science News from 2010. I felt very lucky to have discovered these images, as I am "religious" about being an analog collagist and not using photocopying or digital manipulations of my images. The various sizes of these virus images would allow me to potentially create some nice depth cues in a composition. This is only my second COVID-related artwork; and I think this one is associated with some different feelings than the last one I did. I am lucky to have already gotten my second vaccination; and I feel like, as a society, we are starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel, with regard to the pandemic. Perhaps those feelings are captured in this piece, as it is, at the same time poignant and humorous -- even three months ago, humor was "out of the picture" for anything COVID-related for me. There's also another aspect of this piece (and all COVID-related artwork, I think) which I find intriguing: What will become of them? I think they all will be interesting cultural artifacts of a very significant globally-shared experience. On the other hand, I can't imagine that 5 or 10 years from now, they will be particularly sell-able. In 50 years, will they be more valuable as an artifact, or less valuable? -- it's difficult to predict. But here it is! It's entitled "Thou Shalt Not Approach Me with an Ill-Donned Mask" (5" x 5", analog collage):