Karen I. Hirsch

Chicago, Illinois

In March 2020, I pledged to myself to create graphic designs each day of the coronavirus pandemic, until I no longer felt confined by being sheltered-in-place. I thought I would only be making these images for a couple of weeks, which was the original prediction for how long the pandemic would last... But then the period kept getting extended.

To this day, I continue to create colorful graphic art images and post them on social media each day. Perhaps, when I get my second vaccination, I will stop.

Some of the images in this series express my emotion. Others show the status of the disease, such as “peaking” and “flattening the curve.” Some represent the disease itself, its face and animated form. Some represent the hope for the future, regeneration and a kind of rebirth with the coming of spring and finally a return to physical human interaction. In essence, they tell the emotional and visual story of this pandemic period.

Karen I. Hirsch is an international award-winning photographer and digital artist based in Chicago, Illinois. Her photos have been published internationally in books, newspapers, magazines, and calendars. She has photographed U.S. presidents, Olympic gold medalists, musicians, movie stars, sports icons, bestselling authors, and business moguls. She is active in the photographic community as a member of the American Society of Media Photographers and the American Photographic Artists. She is co-president of Fort Dearborn-Chicago Photo Forum, a historic not-for-profit photo organization.

Hirsch’s fine art prints are found in corporate and private collections.

Past Artists on the Lam show: LEXICON (2016)