“I’ve always considered myself a global citizen. Very privileged to have grown up and lived in many contexts, where I’ve picked up languages, learned nuances of cultures, an created life-changing relationships. I like people, the dreamers and the doers, and I prefer the outdoors. Because I feel a certain kinship to all these connections, human and non-human, there are days when our big wide world actually feels quite small, familiar, and home-y. I take comfort in that feeling. In light of current events and for the first time, being someone with close ties oceans away in all directions, suddenly feels like a burden. I feel the weight of the world so acutely and all at once. No one is spared from Covid-19.

In my original independent study syllabus, I sought to push the approach of drawing I had defined as “the unhinged exploration of hinging…[in order] to explore and learn about a small world”. I hoped to explore the scale of the world through this type of drawing, while addressing questions like: “how do hinges and links manifest themselves in culture and society? How does the built environment support these bonds? and “what do these worlds, linked and hinged in multi-dimensions, look like, and perhaps, what do these worlds reveal or fail to?”

Ironically, our world is in a state of unhinge and I have no desire to further unhinge it. Instead, the scale of the world has drastically collapsed to the scale of my studio apartment in New Haven. I feel stuff. And this drawing had been both cathartic and meditative. An initial desire to explore“hinge” and “unhinge” has morphed into a rumination on the more human synonym of “connect” and “disconnect”. These crazy times have heightened connections I had neglected, revealed connections I did not know were there, and hurt connections I was perhaps counting on. COVID-19 has unhinged our world to reveal both how deeply connected we are as earthlings, and how disconnected we are from what may matter more. It revealed the health of our bonds, both personal and global.”