From the Artist: I had been working as an event planner at a retreat center for 13 years when Covid hit. All our events were canceled, soon after I was furloughed, and finally, I was let go. As a single woman, I was cast into isolation at the exact moment I needed community the most. To cope and stay busy, I developed a daily studio routine and offered art classes online to children. As a painter for 30 years, there is a blessing in having the prolonged quiet of quarantine. In this time, I have completed three self-portraits. The second, Portal, was painted during April and May of 2020. This painting reflected both my inner and outer experience. At the time, the economy was shut down and there was a pervasive sense that perhaps we were experiencing a sea change. As everyone went home, and a deep silence came over every neighborhood, there was a simultaneous hope in the air that perhaps a new way of being in the world could emerge, a phoenix from the ashes - a rebirth. I too was in the process of reinventing myself after losing my work. My world had been lost and I was thrust into finding a new identity. Portal is about moving from states of struggle and darkness toward a hopeful future.