Family Portraits
Though the COVID-19 pandemic has brought unapparelled loss to millions around the world, it has also revealed a compassion and resilience in people. As often happens, we turn to artists in the community to help us all process our grief and create poignancy from tragedy.
“After months of listening to news reports about the death toll from COVID, which felt distant, anonymous, and disconnected, I wanted to do something that brought the reality of this devastating time into sharp focus,” says Christian Schmit, a programmer at the William E. Durr Branch of the Kenton County Public Library.
“I struggled to find a way to do this, but finally realized the answer is simple: I am an artist, I know lots of artists, let's make portraits of people,” says Schmit,
Schmit, in collaboration with other 21 local artists, created The COVID Portrait Project, currently on view through August 6 at the Durr branch in Independence. The portraits are their effort to remember those who passed away over that past year and memorialize them with honor and dignity.
“The result of this project is a humble display, 24 portraits,” says Schmit. “But I hope that through the artists' skill and the touching words of family and friends, we have created something monumental, that replaces cold numbers with faces, names and lives worth remembering,”
Earlier this year, the library asked patrons to submit photos of loved ones who had died during the pandemic. Then they recruited artists to create the portraits. Each portrait is accompanied by a short biography from a family member or friend and a remembrance of a happy time in their loved one’s life.
“It's an emotional drawing to make because you know that the person has passed away, says Katelyn Wolary, one of the portrait artists. “It's not just a job. It's very personal, very one to one. To not even know the family receiving the portrait on a personal level, it doesn't change the intimacy of what we're doing as artists.”
“Sometimes it feels so huge that you don't even know where to turn with COVID and the pandemic and this brings it down to a level that we all can understand,” says Wolary. “We can all feel like we're giving something that is beneficial or positive.”
– Tricia Suit
The William E. Durr Branch of the Kenton County Library is at 1992 Walton-Nicholson in Independence, Ky. The library is open Monday – Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday, 9 am. – 6 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The library is closed on Sunday.
For more information about The COVID Portrait Project visit www.kentonlibrary.org/the-covid-portrait-project.