Cathy Spivey Mendola - USA
North Carolina, US
Since early 2020 we have watched our world change before our very eyes. The loss of life has been enormous and devastating. Though we now have vaccines, they are not readily available in some countries and we have not been able to put an end to this pandemic yet. At times it seems we keep going in circles where we repeat stringent protocols, then relax them only to watch the case numbers soar. It feels as though we are caught in an endless cycle of chaos and grief. I wanted to keep my panel somewhat simple to convey the message that we are all grieving. I felt a crying eye stitched on planet earth would be perfect placed on a background of swirling chaos. At the time I finished the panel (early November) the US had surpassed 750,000 deaths and over 5 million worldwide. At the time of this statement (the day before Christmas Eve) the US has now surpassed 810,00. Truly something to cry about.