To Mend a Broken Heart

An acrylic painting on a white canvas. A red and pink anatomical heart is in the center of the piece. The heart has two cuts through it, held together by gray stitches. A fair-skinned hand is positioned above the heart to the right, holding a needle with gray thread in between the thumb and pointer finger, stitching up one of the cuts on the heart. At the top of the heart is a tan bandage.

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In Collections: Creativity in the Time of COVID-19

Copyright Status: In Copyright

Date Created: 2019/2022

Artists: Galeas, Glamar Osclarys

Subjects: COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020- , in art

Material Type: Paintings (visual works)

Language: No linguistic content

Extent: 1 painting

Genre Note: Acrylic on canvas

Exhibit Label: During the pandemic, my mother who was immunocompromised got COVID-19 at work. After a year of contracting the virus, my mother started to face heart problems she had never previously experienced. She underwent several heart procedures with no concrete answers as to what was causing her complications. During this time, I enrolled in graduate school to get my Master's Degree in Public Health. Learning about the disregard for immunocompromised individuals during the pandemic and the lack of health equity caused me to feel overwhelmed and heartbroken. As a woman of color, learning about how many years of system change are needed to solve health disparities made me feel disheartened in my future line of work, so I used this pain as inspiration for my paintings. Painting helped me relieve stress from the experience of going into a field that was being highly criticized and politicized by the public.The work shows a hand stitching together a broken heart that is bleeding and cut. Additionally, a Band-Aid is present at the top left of the heart indicating its hope to heal and mend. The painting is meant to be hopeful. Aside from the negativity, the heart is being stitched back together and mended indicating that although there is pain and uncertainty, there is also healing and understanding. --Label design by exhibit curator Nancy DeJoy. Labels written by Ben Lash and his team in consultation with artist statements.

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