Governors’ Bridge is a 22 x 28 inch mixed media painting created during the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown that started in March of 2020. It was done using acrylic and oils as well as Golden Glass Bead medium and flat back crystals. Much experimentation was done developing the best way to depict the virus itself with the final choice being round disks painted iridescent silver then given a coat of Glass Bead medium for a textured surface. The spikes were then added with red or black ink pens and crystals at the tips of the spikes. The tightrope and salivating Devil’s mouth are also achieved with strings of fishing line dipped in Glass Bead medium. The colors of the Devil and the sky have a lot of black mixed in to give a more somber effect. Behind him is a totally eclipsed sun and his tail tip is another leering monster head instead of the traditionally depicted pointed end.
After seeing some sidewalks with stenciled black 6 foot dividers to keep people away from each other while standing on lines, the number 666 traditionally associated with the Devil became the inspiration for a painting where the Devil was responsible for the Covid-19 onslaught that resulted in so much suffering and so many deaths. Walking on a tightrope seemed an apt metaphor for the uncertainty and fear that everyone felt even walking outside around other people. The menacing infestation of monsters represents the sense of the virus infecting every aspect of our lives and the tail wrapped around the woman’s neck symbolizes the physical and emotional strangulation that was occurring. The stone gargoyles weighing on the central figure pay homage to the burdens born by health care workers and the propeller hat of the child illustrates that children were originally thought to be major spreaders of the virus.
The title “Governors’ Bridge” refers to the disastrous and utterly baffling decision of governors in certain states to return infected nursing home patients from hospitals back to the nursing homes in spite of other available options, resulting in spreading infection and many deaths of helpless elderly patients. Having spent a number of years taking care of elderly parents and seeing these helpless Covid patients dying without benefit of family or friends, I found this decision very heart-wrenching and it caused me a great deal of anger and pain. The city collapsing into the Devil’s mouth and the small elderly patients in blue hospital gowns sliding into the crushing abyss is my wish that these patients who suffered so much should never be forgotten.
Govenors’ Bridge by Ellen Chadwick, mixed media, 22″x28″, 2021, in collection of the artist.