Family COVID Masks

Abby Holmes was an Artist in Residence at SJMQT from March-June 2021.

Here she talks about her work:

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world and lockdown began in 2020, masks were scarce. You couldn't buy any on the internet, well at least any at any sort of reasonable price. So I decided to sew my own. Luckily I had lots of cotton quilting fabric on hand and matching thread, but, alas, no elastic. It turns out that elastic was also hard to come by, so I took an old fitted sheet I had saved and cut out the elastic from it. The first mask I made was for my 8 year old son.

The three masks in the SJMQT Permanent Collection were ones I hand-sewed during the Spring of 2021 when elastic had again become readily available. I used white Kona cotton I hand-painted as the masks’ bases. The large, blue mask is for my husband, the small yellow mask is for my son and the dark pink medium-sized mask is for me. In the bottom right hand
corner of each mask, I hand-embroidered the initials of my husband, son and myself on each respective mask. The white eight-petaled flower is my trademark.

Techniques: Hand painted cotton, hand sewn and embroidered
Culture: American
Geographic Location: North and Central America, United States, California
Credit Line: Gift of the Artist