EMPRESS CATHERINE THE GREAT’s CORONA
In pandemic my friends keep calling & emailing to check on me during “lockdown”; as the most ‘out-every-night’ social woman Seattle they probably assumed I’d go off the deep end. My studio - too often procrastinated - has become a haven of sanity (ok, all that candy I keep out there is also a lure. Yup, I’m doing my part to “Fatten the Curve” as per Fauci)….
Much of my art involves verbiage/puns and assemblage decorating my frames, plus I've always been a fan of classical portraiture (& people in general). The lightbulb moment struck: CORONA obviously means CROWN as well as COVID, so the CORONA QUEENS (all powerful women, another thing the world needs now along with laughs?) series was born.
Catherine the Great 1729 – 1796, was Russia's longest-ruling female leader. Upon wresting control from her (insane?) husband, she reformed the administration of Russian governorates and continued to modernize Russia along Western European lines, this became the Golden Age of Russia (though "on the backs" of the serfs). Catherine was a patron of the arts, literature, and education, the Hermitage Museum began as Catherine's personal collection. She also founded the 1st higher education institution for women in Europe. Catherine made public health a priority, launched hospitals, had the government collect and publish vital statistics, establishing a centralized medical system, and importantly, decided to have herself and her son Pavel inoculated against smallpox to quell her subjects fears, resulting in millions of innocculations.
