When the COVID-19 pandemic started getting real in Wisconsin back in the spring, none of us could predict what we were in for. Life as we knew it seemed to change overnight. Since the beginning, health care workers have bravely been on the frontline of it all, but sometimes their voices get lost in the noise.
Nirmal Raja, a Milwaukee-based artist, began embroidering the thoughts of health care workers onto homemade face masks in April as a way of documenting the pandemic through their eyes.
“I sent my kids away for three months to keep them safe,” said a nurse in Arizona. “I cry all day for them.”
“Will I take this home?” a Milwaukee nurse said. “Will I be next?”
Her series, called “Feeble Barriers,” is paused, but Raja is still seeking submissions. Health care workers can contribute their reflections to Raja’s email address nirmalinbetween@gmail.com.
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