Self Portraits During COVID-19 Pandemic Books I- XIV

"Mid-March 2020, COVID-19 hit America, and everything shut down. We got an email that the dorms and school were closing, and we had to move out. I moved into grandma’s basement in The Quiet Corner of Connecticut. Feeling uprooted with so much uncertainty, I started to draw a daily portrait to keep track of time and give myself an achievable task each day.

For each month, I made a book to house the daily portraits. There are portraits documenting Zoom learning, a power outage, being diagnosed with PCOS, meds changes, the election, and so much more. Surface, medium, and style have all been experimented with. My pandemic portraits have been done on drawing paper, as well as vegetable papyrus, handmade paper, natural dyed paper, plaster, drywall paper, packaging, a postcard, a receipt, pages ripped from an art history book, a bulletin, print outs, etc. I made some of my own papers out of recycled and organic materials and made dyes out of turmeric, berries, oak galls, and tea.

This work, I made for my own sanity. It started as a way to track the days and my own emotions. It helped me to stay present and process, as well as become more accepting and less judgmental of my own face. One day, I may have grandchildren who will ask me about the COVID-19 pandemic, and I will hand them these books of portraits."

— Rebekah Budd