Selfies

Selfie

I've been making and wearing and making masks.

This is one of my latest. I'm not Catholic, but the iconography appeals to me.

This is a picture of me at work, in the procedure mask--the ONE procedure mask that I am given per shift. We are supposed to wear it at all times while in patient contact areas. (I was in the bathroom when I took this picture, not in a pt contact area, but not someplace I wanted to put the mask down anyway.)

 

When I'm not wearing it, it goes front-side down onto a piece of tissue or something. By the end of my shift, the inside of the mask is pretty gross. There is talk of sterilizing and reusing this single-use mask, which I find disgusting. (Don't get me started on this.) In this case, I perched the mask on a bit of paper hand toweling on the top of the CPU.

This next mask is one I made a week or more ago, a flying sock monkey and poisonous mushroom mask. It's Dave's now. At the time I didn't have any wire to add to shape the nose piece, so I later used some nichrome wire from the studio wrapped in flannel. I attached it with Steam-a-seam, but when we washed it, the glue came loose on the ends. So then I hand-sewed it in. It's a good mask.

This green mask is mine. Green is my favorite color, but I have few green fabrics from which to choose. This fabric had been slated to make a quilt with a Volvox theme. That idea never got off the ground, unfortunately, so I used the fabric bit by bit in other quilts and the last of it on this mask.

We keep a Ziplock bag of masks hanging on the back of the door, so that we can grab one when we have to go out. In addition, we also have a handful of disposable surgical masks and a few N95s, just in case. This is not Japan, we can't just whip down to the local pharmacy and pick up a box of masks to wear in public. (I wish we could, but, you know.)

I don't know how many masks I've made so far. Quite a few. Maybe 40? 50? I've been making two basic styles, the surgical mask style (like the green one above) and a more elaborate style that can be worn alone or over a round-type N95 mask (like the flying sock monkey one above). I gave away a few at work and the others will be donated. Lots of places are asking for donations, everywhere from the police department to Indian Health Services to nursing homes. So they'll find places where they need to be.

Others

This next thing is not a mask but a coloring page from one of the kids at work. The kid colored in the bunny and then added a self-portrait off to the side holding the bunny's hand. This was the weekend before Easter.

This is the inside of the last kiln we fired at Judi's. The plates that I painted months ago turned out marvelously. Just bright and strange and happy. I love them.

Are you tired of being sequestered yet? I read a great tweet which said something along the lines of: Think of how you feel right now and then make it your mission to empty out all the zoos when this is over.

One lasr selfie.

 Los Muertos mask. My macabre humor.