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COVID affects our lives, but NOT our love of life and each other. Love can exist in times of uncertainty.

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2020 has been a year of struggle, loss, and challenge and it has also been a year of community, heroes, self-reflection, recognition of injustice and power. NYC will rise up and be stronger for our shared experience.

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Human beings helping human beings. If we take one thing from this pandemic, let it be the value we have for each other as human beings and the power we can have collectively when working together. We are always bettER togethER!

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Throughout 2020 I was constantly faced with new, shocking information, to which my only response could be "WTF".

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No one anticipated, or was prepared. The loss of life, dreams and relationship in this year has frighten us and burden us all. "One nation under God....with liberty and justice for all"....

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One day, while en route to my office in Long Island City, I looked up at the sky peeking out above the subway platform & I was blown away by the gift of of this spectacular sunrise. One week later, COVID-19 closed-down the city & my job...I haven’t been on the #7 platform since snapping this pic.

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My work represents being solid as a rock in your faith, your ideology and with your family and friends.

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My Mom use to tell me to crack the black peppercorns in a cloth with a red brick. My Mom, Lucia,  always loved eating Pecorino cheese with black pepper, called Pecorino with pepe nero, and as I thought of a name for this song I said lemme combine Pecorino with our family name Pecoraro. My own music, I created is called Italian Electronic Pop Music.

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There here is a feeling of obscurity in my work, the eye peeking through the mask on the doll can be read as feeling isolated and uncertain about our new sense of normal.

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2020 has taught me more about the challenging conditions that workers in different fields face, particularly those in healthcare and face-to-face service industries. We call these workers our heroes and our angels but fall short of compensating them for their sacrifices. In this self-portrait, which is part of a larger photographic series about workers, I portray myself as a nurse and I include a tongue-in-cheek imaginary quote about how she feels when someone calls her an “angel.”

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2020 has been this very odd, unprecedented, complex, stagnant yet ever changing idea. I wanted to create a piece that showed that complexity, that texture, that movement. I created this orbs flowing over this square box, signifying that we can’t define our humanity by this period or box that we are living in now. Our dreams will prevail, our hopes will prevail and this pandemic will not keep us tightly contained in this box.

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At the moment, I am looking for a change.

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New York City is a vibrant city. We will rise. We will dance again!

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We will survive! We must survive!
And it is not an overstatement.
As a nation, as humanity, we don't have another choice: we will survive this virus. We survived hurricanes and floods, slavery and discrimination, fascism and communism, wars and hunger. We survived dozens of deadly diseases. We became stronger. We will survive this virus! We can! We should! We must! We don't have other choice!

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When everything goes back to normal this is how relax everyone will feel.

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I have written what I am strongly feeling at this moment. I feel good about it because it helps me survive what everyone in the world  is going thru right now.

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My daughter created this art piece. Everyone from Queens Hospital is hoping and praying for a cure soon.

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I am feeling the chaos, the misery, the uncertainty, the heaviness of the world we are living in now. On the other hand, I am feeling the optimism of this upside down world. You can see a different view by standing on your head or by turning the work around.

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My submission is an excerpt of a piece entitled "Close-Up". This piece reflects the juxtaposition of willingness to display oneself on camera to connect with others and combat loneliness, contrasted with attempts to avoid camera surveillance to protect one's privacy, especially in light of video technology used as a tool for video conferencing and communication.

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The sculpture in the video represents a prickly, detached suburban landscape on the surface (skin) and the warm, engaged human communities underneath.  Even during this age of mutual suspicion and distance, human connection and engagement are still the things that lend life value.

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Images of work and play remind us that life is intertwined. If I get up before dawn, I can get to the top of this peak and see this NYC reservoir and still be home before breakfast. It clears the mind and allows me to be connected to the work in the water supply.

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My artwork reflects the pain my heart has been in since COVID-19. It is what my life feels like in this moment. I hope my writing helps minorities out there know they are not alone, together we will rise from this.

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I feel trapped by an impossible situation. The Greek myth of Daedalus who makes wings to escape the labyrinth gives me hope that there is a way out.

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My art work reflects how we as a city have come together during this pandemic honoring and thanking our frontline workers and first responders

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This piece is an expression of finding console in depression. 2020 has certainly impacted mental health and from personal experience, I try to motivate that depression is not only natural, it can be beautiful.

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Here we are equal.

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This poem reflects a questioning of what we know or have taken for granted (e.g., our earth, health, history, art). It reflects a demand that that knowledge be reexamined and retold so that we can live more courageously and truthfully, opening and healing our heart and mind.

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Description: (Mayor's Office - Criminal Justice)

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Description: (Mayor's Office - Criminal Justice)

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My submission “Breaking the Chains in America” reflects how life feels for me in this moment through sharing the stories of five individuals impacted by “isms” (sexism, homophobia, ageism, racism, and ableism) in America; and how "we the people" are the key to combatting these “isms” plaguing our communities and breaking the chains of oppression. My artwork includes individual pledges (via the stars) from a group of NYC social workers committed to being culturally competent, anti-oppressive, and anti- racist, serving vulnerable communities citywide

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The year 2020 has taught me to continue to be inspired by children and their imaginations.  Children are experts at using their imaginations to cope during times of stress. "Boy Inside" conveys the idea of a boy, although stuck inside, is able to imagine his favorite woodland animals playing beside him.  Perhaps as adults we can also tap into our imaginations to deal better with stress and anxiety during difficult times.

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2020 has taught me that there are lessons in every moment. I wrote through the lenses of my experiences while helping others.

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2020 has taught me the importance of staying connected with others. Creating Coping Stones helped me cope better and in doing so, I want to help others cope better. Staying connected during these times is important and helping other cope is essential. We are all in this together

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"Life Post SARS CoV-2?" is a parody that reflects uncertainty about the future, post-pandemic and post-election. Our society is divided – front line workers risking their lives versus those who embrace wild conspiracy theories, eschew science, and place their own comfort above the health of their neighbors. Where will we go from here?

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Life Post SARS-CoV-2? (Lisa Parrott with Kinjia Hinterland) Our COVID video series continues!

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Life feels like a black and white photo, reminding me of simpler times of my childhood.

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This piece is about systematic racism and discrimination. It is a body of work that represents Black America post slavery and Jim Crow and how in today’s society those elements still exist.

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Almost a year spent mostly indoors, with a few glimpses of the quiet City.  But the mind knows no boundaries. Watching the seasons change and time passing with every footstep.  Anything can happen at any moment. Live each day to the fullest no matter what may surround.

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2020 feels like we’re all being pulled down into some unknown abyss.

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2020 has been a profound teacher. Even when the world feels chaotic - I find home within myself, I grant myself peace of mind. I am worthy of rest and so much more. And so are you.

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2020 has been a horrible year. My mother was admitted to a hospital on Jan. 1 and lost her battle to cancer on Sept. 18. The loss is overwhelming.

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It displays a current sense of dismay and lost of hope but offers a promise that this too shall pass and there are better times ahead.

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2020 has taught me to pause and be mindful about self-care when busy is the constant mode in urban life... and release the noise from within.

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We deserve peaceful life and diversified beautifulness.

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This piece reflect my experiences during the current pandemic. Our required isolation has brought a flood of emotions to us all. I have felt that my art and writing pieces have been very cathartic. I encourage everyone to take up the pen and brush.

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Celebrations of life must go on, even during trying times…The speed of this “ Philippine Folk Dance” can be very exhilarating with the possibility of  foot injury. The evolution of the dance is that during the years of Spanish colonization of the Philippines. Many Filipinos were indentured laborers in the fields of  wealthy landowners. Who clapped two pieces of bamboo to encourage productivity and to  punish “Indolent Filipinos” at times  and the farmworkers started  to use the bamboo clapping sound while dancing and celebrating their “Fiesta” as a form of protest.

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I am in a deep green forest, with hope. I know the exit is somewhere there, but I cannot find it yet

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My painting is of two figures. One figure sleeps peacefully while the other figure is wide eyed, looking anxious. The figures take up the entire space of the canvas evoking a confined feeling.

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Real-life in 2020, taught me to use humor in art. I have artfully made the Corona Virus a dating profile to explain where it came from. This piece makes the virus from outer space; literally, a meteor that landed in Russia in 2013, aka the Chelyabinsk event.

Tinder Profile for the novel coronavirus:

The Virus (no age listed)

A moving target looking 4 skin bags of water and viscera. Only seeking strings attached.

P.S. I am a Pisces born on the Cheylabinski Event.

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Abstract unrealistic feel and look on life and the confusion I see and feel.