The last time I was at the studio on March 15, I frantically packed a bag of supplies so that I could make art at home during the pandemic.

I turned my back office into a makeshift “collage studio” and got to work. My goal is to have one represented for every day we are in quarantine. 

I want to use this art to give back to the community and help with food insecurity. 

I am ‘selling’ these collages through a pay-what-you-can donation to the food bank of your choice! 

Email me at mail@ilenesova.com to set up your purchase by donation!

Our former eyes have been replaced, and the curtain pulled back on the inequities that we didn’t quite FULLY see before; rampant ableism, deep racism, vitriolic sexism and complex classism. 

News and news feeds are full of surreal death stories and devastating condolences, read and consumed through these new eyes of truth; all laid bare by Covid19. 

We look with different eyes that are metallic and shiny. Eyes that haven’t yet been formed; new eyes that no longer know how to ‘look to our future” for hope and possibilities. Eyes swimming in pools of uncertainties brought by Covid19.

Our Instagram lives and our materialistic obsessions are now unimportant and breaking apart at the seams. Nails unpainted, unkempt hair with new natural roots growing out of our scalps. spring fashion lines left the rack, are locked up in retail stores collecting dust. All are deemed unimportant by Covid19. 

We are left to self-reflect, face ourselves, slow down, and toss and turn at night with vivid crackling dreams alive with messages screaming from our subconscious. A newly formed focus on symbols and images, not yet fully understood, brought to you by Covid19. 

Our connection to nature and the world around us is only now beginning to be understood. We thought we were separate, but now we know we are one. We were never masters of this universe because nature was never ours to master. Fractured plants, roaming animals, the unpolluted sky, the contaminated dirt, seeping in and out of our bodies. Sequestered in our homes, our minds begin to change, open up, and fracture with confusion; scattered with former motivations that are no longer valuable. We float in a sea of unknowns, covering our faces with psychological and real masks. Covid19 is a virus that makes reliability and safety unknown. In a sparkly shiny isolated dreamy space —  how will we prophesize our new future and manifest in an uncertain one?