Statements from "Drawings in a Time of Social Distancing"

What COVID-19 Isn't, 2020 Artist: Alexis Ward Medium: Ink and Acrylic on Paper Dimensions: 19 x 24 in Price: $150 This poster is a wake up call. All too many times throughout the development of this crisis, I especially hear of people in my communities dismiss the severity of COVID-19, as if they were immune to it compared to their white counterparts. However, this is not only dangerous thinking but it also undermines the lives of our essential workers and even the babies being born into this chaos. So I wanted to incorporate a common phrase I've heard: "Oh this is just the flu" and draw attention to how absurd it is in addition to placing the pandemic's most vulnerable groups front and center. Artist Statement: I convey as you would with advertisements, billboards. I'm heavily inspired by their power to address, explain, convince onlookers that what they're marketing hold value and rings true, even when they remove their gaze from it. And even with this power, they are still approachable for everyday people. Likewise, my work makes the African American and Puerto Rican culture something tangible, approachable, relatable and is especially wonderful in portraying ordinary people and their lives as beautiful. These concepts are executed with inks, acrylic paint, watercolor, markers. My work is conscious, aware, alive, being in tune, voicing the beauty and concerns of unsung communities, diversifying one mark at a time. Instagram: @illustrated_lexicon