SYNOPSIS
“Some people say that our body force us to stop when we don’t take time for ourselves. What happens in an individual way also tends to happen in a collective way.”
“Quarantine” by Catarina Ferreira — March 14, 2020
At the beginning of the year 2020, the world stopped. A virus has plagued us all in a variety of ways, negatively contributing to both physical and mental health.
A new process of personal introspection has begun, one that has also been taking place globally. Does this phase have any meaning? Will it be an opportunity to change before it’s too late?
Sometimes the world forces us to reflect on our actions, but it is not every day and hardly in a lifetime that you expect to deal with something like this. While some ask why, others believe it was time to stop our vicious cycle. We live 7 billion human lives without any rest, caught in a bubble of schedules, routines, tasks and obligations. We live by trends, moments and stories highlighted as one, as lost in groups as we often are as individuals.
We were forced to stay at home against our will, even if it meant our safety. Forced to take responsibility not only for ourselves but for others as well.
The most valuable lessons are given in the hardest ways. Quarantine gave us a unique opportunity. Allowed us time. Time to stop, think, reflect. To remember what we want to do in life, who we want to be. All of humanity was forced to cease the rhythm, leaving nothing to do but face our very existence.
What will our role be from now on? What do we do? What are we made of? We have the unique opportunity to grow personally and do it together, in addition to showing the true face of humanity. Show that we need to change. And realize that maybe we are the virus.
“In crisis people can find out who they are. In pain people find their strength. In overwhelming times we learn our peace within.”
“Quarantine” by Catarina Ferreira — March 14, 2020
ILLUSTRATION 1: “#STOPTHEVIRUS”
First, there was the feeling that SARS COV-2 emerged as Nature’s response to the atrocities we do to it, from its resources unceasingly extracted, to the animals we insist on saying are ours to command. In this pandemic, who is the real enemy? COVID-19 or the human species? For us, the little microscopic being is the villain. Kills the most vulnerable, leaves heavy damage to survivors, does not choose color, gender or social status in its attack. It forces us to stay at home without being able to walk, be with friends and family, party as we want. For Nature, maybe the enemy is us. Perhaps we are the villain and COVID-19 was a defense against the most dangerous virus on the planet: Humanity. What if She put up posters against us with the hashtag #StopTheVirus?
“And then the Earth gave us a chance, a glimpse of what the world would be without us. What it could be. What it should be. And manking realized the destruction in its presence and the life in its absence. In this beautiful picture, we don’t exist. How have we come to this?”
“Glimpse” by Catarina Ferreira — May 6, 2020
ILLUSTRATION 2: “BROKEN HEART”
In the midst of world chaos, some experienced stress and panic for the first time. For the rest, the usual just got more problems and doubts.
Now that the world has stopped for everyone, how can it move forward on a personal level? Professional? Social? So much was left on hold. Projects, ideas, trips, perspectives, plans. How about now?
Anxiety and depression settle in by pieces, reminding us of all that we wanted to do and couldn’t. A heart full of dreams beating alone for the world, without anything back, completely impotent.
We suffer alone, mending the wounds that keep appearing in a fight that seems to be far away from finish, yearning for the suffering to end one day. Not because of the pandemic, but because of the state of world, which gradually reveals what humanity is made of. Full of hard avoidable realities that have always been ignored.
“The normal consists of appearances over character. Conformity over change. Fear over love. Money over principles. Self over others. Humans over nature. Luxury over right to live. Power over lives.
(…) And here we are. Complaining about staying at home, when we never cared for caged birds that don’t know what flying is. Mad for having to use masks, when we silenced dogs with muzzles for ages. Angry to see our freedom taken away, when we invaded seas, lands and air of others.
(…) We blame others for the trash at our doorstep, but are incapable of cleaning our own house.
(…) “Normal is not right. Normal is exactly the state we have to avoid going back to.”“Normal” by Catarina Ferreira — November 16, 2020
ILLUSTRATION 3: “HUMAN PARADOX”
As time went by, more and more we could observe the emerging of people who revealed the worst of our species. With no empathy, no love for the next, with no concern for others.
Deniers are everywhere. They are against masks, against vaccines. They don’t try to understand science or the experts. Social networks have revealed the worst specimens that don’t even try to hide who they are. The world is dropping its old masks.
Meanwhile, millions suffer, dying or living with difficult sequels, fighting for their lives. Some protest for the right of not wearing a mask, while others cannot breathe on their own. They protest for everyone’s freedom when they only think about their own. They protest for containments and measures when they are the first to facilitate these to continue to happen.
The human being is tragically paradoxical.
The illustrations were all done in Adobe Photoshop CS6 using a medium-sized Wacom Intuos Art Pen & Touch tablet and pen.
The works “Broken Heart” and “Human Paradox” were first conceived and drawn in pencil on an A5-sized paper support and later digitally drawn and improved on the computer. “#StopTheVirus” was made directly on Photoshop.
