This piece was originally started as a demo for my virtual digital illustration students at Elite Animation Academy. As I was painting, I started thinking about the strategy of chess, where you sacrifice many pawns to win the game. To date about 336,000 have been sacrificed as the POTUS practiced a strategy of herd immunity.
By politicizing the wearing of masks the POTUS guaranteed deaths. By contradicting public health experts, he created a divide among those that practice safety precautions and those that ignore all safety guidance. The nation has never been so divided, there is only black and white with no middle ground or swaying opinion with reasoning or thought.
Rather than swim upstream, health expert are quitting because they can not face the antagonism and threats of violence. Hospitals are being overwhelmed by people who refuse to accept that they have contracted the virus. The crisis could have been avoided but it continues to get worse just as the promise of vaccinations are on the horizon. People are scrambling to try and get the vaccine before it is too late. The rich are trying to bribe their way into getting the shots and in Florida those 65 and older are being offered the vaccine before front line health workers. My doctors office just sent out a mass e-mail letting everyone know that they do NOT have the vaccine. They must be getting an overwhelming number of requests. My older sister in south Florida has been trying to find where she can get her shots but keeps running across brick walls. There is a site set up to schedule appointments for vaccine shots and it was overwhelmed and shut down from all the traffic. COVID-19 broke the internet.
When Van Gogh shot himself in the corn field, black crows rose up from the crop, their black wings cutting across the sky. Mitch McConnell put a hold on a COVID relief bill for Americans unable to decide if each person should get $600 or $2000. For many it is too little too late.