‘Life In a Pandemic’ artwork on display at FMC gallery
Though she hasn’t seen even seen it yet, artist Cheryl Parris’ exhibit at Floyd Medical Center is bringing a little light and color people who need it the most.
Digital artist Cheryl Parris’ perspective of life during the COVID-19 pandemic are on display in the Wright Art Gallery on the second floor of Floyd Medical Center.
The Atlanta area artist exhibited at Polk Medical Center last fall and said she was contacted by the art director at FMC to display in Rome. The pandemic delayed that exhibit but it’s finally on display for staff and patients to enjoy.
“Medical centers are actually great places for art,” Parris said. Many of them display art. I think it inspires the healthcare workers it might brighten their day. Art is about emotion and inspiration and I hope the patients and the healthcare workers enjoy it.”
The exhibit includes eight pieces. Five of those are from Parris’ “Life in a Pandemic/Balcony” series. She says the pieces show “how we are all dealing with the pandemic in our own way; sometimes alone, but always together.”
“I had a lot of time in quarantine,” Parris said. “I just decided I was going to create one piece. But how my mind works is when I get an idea I end up with three to five pieces. It started off with a piece called ‘social distancing’ — people talking to each other from their balconies. Then “Life Goes On, the big tall building with people in it. I like to do cityscapes.
I love the city. I wanted to show life in the middle of a city, people in this big city but in small groups or alone and isolated.”
As a digital artist, Parris says she falls somewhere between being a photographer and a conventional artist, using textures, text, photographs, including vintage images, colored and restored, bits and pieces of patterns and shapes in her creative process.
“Most of the time I start with a blank canvas,” she said. “I do something every day. I don’t always end up liking it but I try to create every day. I usually open up a blank canvas and that means I can do anything with it. There are all sorts of possibilities.”
Parris’ images were part of the Picturing America Gallery at the Booth Art Museum in Cartersville. She is a member of the Booth Museum’s Photography Guild and participates in their special interest group, Artistic Composites, which was formed to help others who want to explore the field of digital art.
Her art has been published in Living the Photo Artistic Life magazine. She has also been the featured artist on the Photoshop Artistry website.
The exhibit will be on display at Floyd Medical Center through July.
To view more of Parris’ work, visit online at www. cherylparris.com.