The mural
As I mentioned in my first post, Open Windows originated with a mural which I created in 2020 during the early days of the worldwide covid pandemic. I had just driven cross-country to teach an editorial cartooning course at California Institute of the Arts when the shutdown began and my class was changed to an online course. Like many people affected by the shutdown, I felt isolated. Although I was used to working at home for my regular editorial cartooning job, I soon felt the need to create something personal, something about the human side of the pandemic.
I had several blank walls in my sparsely furnished apartment so I hung up the largest paper I had and started brainstorming. I’ve always loved the film Rear Window- especially for its opening scene, which is a masterpiece in visual storytelling. A group of windows seemed like a perfect vehicle for showing glimpses of peoples’ lives within the confines of the windows, a metaphor for our shared experience of being shut in during an uncertain time.