Work > 2021-2020

Weeping Tulips  (Semper Augustus) (The Covid Diaries Series)
Weeping Tulips (Semper Augustus) (The Covid Diaries Series)
Vase, wire, epoxy resin, acrylics
18" x 18" x 18"
2020

The "Covid Diairies" series are works based on my journal entries during the past eight months and counting. In the series, mundane daily chores in isolation in my apartment collide with catastrophic world news.

During Tulip mania, the Semper Augustus was the most sought after and costly tulip, sometimes fetching prices as high as buying a house. in the ultimate irony, the very beauty of Semper Augustus is why it no longer exists. Its crimson stripes were caused by a virus that eventually degraded the bulbs until it could no longer be cultivated. I'm making a series of tulip works as the memory of the height of the pandemic, the constant sounds of the sirens of ambulances was in contrast to the gorgeous array of tulips blossoming. The pictures out of Holland showed the pandemic's devastation to the tulip industry with millions of tulips being thrown out and destroyed.