So this is me on April 13, 2020. I love my new mask and will use it to venture out to some places I need to go. It reinforces my sense of the world being surreal, right now, everything has changed, yet everything is still the same.
Maria made some masks today – one new one for me, one for my sister Jane, one for Sue Silverstein, our friend who teaches at Bishop Maginn.
The masks make things real for me, they remind me that something serious is going on. But masks are alien in the country where we live, we all see one another all the time, we all know one another. When people say hello, they pull the masks up to speak, and I asked one woman why.
“I think it’s rude to talk through a mask to people you know,” she said.
Maria doesn’t plan to make a lot of masks, it’s not really the work she does, but she enjoyed making a few for people who asked her early and needed them soon and for some people she knows.
There are many fringe benefits to being hooked up with an artist, and I think I got one of the best masks around. My sister got a mask with a leopard on it (below) and Sue Silverstein got a butterfly mask. Mine came from India.
Sue Silverstein’s Butterfly Mask
I remember the lovely masks the nurses had on for my open heart surgery, they were the last thing I remembered before being knocked out in the operating room.
They change the nature of people, I think, I am always startled by them. I wonder how long they will want us to wear them.
Maria loved making these masks, but she’s out of the fabric she used and eager to return to her regular artwork.
This mask is special, it makes me want to wear it.
My sister is getting two masks, one is the leopard mask above, the other is made from the fabric that went into my mask.
That is a FANTASTIC mask ! It looks great on you !
That’s an awesome mask! I made my son some masks because he is delivering medical supplies and the hospitol he works at didn’t have enough supplies for warehouse and delivery personnel. What started out as a small act to help my son and some of his co workers has morphed into a mask making workshop. I’ve made more than 60 masks in the past 2 weeks and I’m glad I can be helpful in this way. I’m keeping all my scraps from the masks and when this is over I will turn them into a colorful quilt to remember this time in our history. Bless you for your writings of hope, goodness, and kindness along with your honesty on our country’s situation!
Those are all lovely masks but yours–yours does double duty. It will bring smiles, even chuckles, to all who witness you wearing it.
Great choices ,Maria.