During the First Lockdown I felt enclosed in a cocoon. Inside our home, everything was good. My immediate family was near, fed, healthy and safe. The internet allowed us to stay connected to family and friends. Domestic routines, art, gardening, and yoga kept me busy. The days were calm yet similar, the cycle of the year interrupted. It was as if time had stopped and we were living in a time outside of time.

Meanwhile, the outside world was falling apart. Daily news bombarded us with a constant flow of horrible developments. The pandemic was raging, bringing fear, pain and death. Differences between people and nations surfaced, pushing hatred and ugliness onto the surface. Political rivalries divided nations. And if that was not enough, natural disasters struck frequently and widely, bringing global warming to the doorstep of millions. Here in California, millions of forest acres burned, and the very air was unbreathable for months.

My panel describes this contrast: the serenity and safety of inside domesticity on the one hand, surrounded by a burning, dangerous world on the other. In the midst of it all: me, trying to keep sane in an unrecognizable world.