A couple weeks after the devastating 2016 U.S. election, the Tampa Museum of Art invited me to respond to their Antiquities Collection with a commissioned sculpture and solo exhibition. I was despondent about the election results and feared I would never be creative again. I visited the collection and found their 1st century life-size Aphrodite torso sparked my imagination. With our society’s hostility toward women, this gave me an opportunity to go back in history to research where segregation of sexes in public and ensuing subjugation begins. Focusing my attention on the history of cult worship of a female deity was a balm. Yes, a public female authority.

But I’m not hopeful about this time period. The Coronavirus will expose every crack in our purely capitalist system including healthcare, education, the arts, housing, economic policy, everything. The pain and suffering will be unbearable. We have to decide what kind of society we want to be, or will the wealthy and powerful men continue to jeopardize our lives?

I’ve been obsessed with two converging subjects right now. First, I am listening to Darcey Armstrong’s 24 lecture course, The Black Death: The World’s Most Devastating Plague on The Great Courses. I’m trying to get some historical perspective, apply it to the art that was created in its aftermath, and hopefully find inspiration to reflect and respond to our time. The second subject is - what happens to women’s bodies in the transition from feudalism to capitalism? Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch: Women, The Body and Primitive Accumulation is illuminating. How this pandemic impacts women must be part of how we learn from this disaster and create a more just world. Our humanity depends on it.