Pandemic Moments
“ i loved you first" oil on canvas 48 inches x 60 inches. Artwork by daniella etel courban.
By daniella etel courban
Perfectly convex, glistening, iridescent, soft, expansive, cool to touch, and swelling with each inhalation/exhalation. It widens and microscopic bridges tentacle outwards until at last contact has been made and merger occurs. Now twice its original size it undulates with the rhythm of the enveloping sound waves emanating from the larger than life speakers, which have been a fixture on our corner since all of this began…
Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip…The pressure is building and what was once the fusion of two half spheres of water has become a pesky river traveling above the sheetrock passing for a ceiling.
It is 115° in Las Vegas today.
Passersby might note the bulge quietly inching towards the tops of their heads, but I have not looked up yet. In fact I am not even there. I am dining three long blocks away. Someplace new. Someplace trendy and shiny and sleek. But the mood is still grounded in reality. So many unknowns. We at the table are all alive, we are well. Existing at the intersection of privilege and luck we are fortunate to be here, dining out, masks on, socially distanced, kind of. Instead of vanishing or burying loved ones we are all hanging in there doing okay, but we are wary. We are worried. We are mad and sad and confused too.
Courses are coming fast and furious because food is both a comfort and a necessity. Halfway through the meal I receive a text from a poet who is my friend and neighbor. It is a photograph. It is an image of a lake, but it is not a real lake. It is the floor of our studio building. I look more carefully and see the attached message: “It's like a woman’s water broke.”
When I arrive to assess the damage, I see tears on the faces of the oil portraits of jazz and blues singers I had recently hung for another artist’s exhibit. No one has been left unscathed.
Photograph courtesy of daniella etel courban.
daniella etel courban is a full time artist and educator with a background in both art and medicine. She is an East Coast transplant now in her fourth year in Nevada. She is the founder of Open Art Las Vegas, an art space in The Arts Factory, where she runs classes and workshops. She is also a part-time instructor in the art department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She has participated in over 30 art exhibits, most recently in group shows at Priscilla Fowler Fine Art, as well as Core Contemporary galleries in Las Vegas. She currently has a solo show of realistic graphite portrait drawings on display at For The Love, LV at 1114 S. Main Street in the Las Vegas Arts District through February 24, 2022. In addition to drawing and painting, she enjoys creative writing and was thrilled at the opportunity to do this flash non-fiction piece for Nevada Humanities. You can follow her works in progress on instagram at @pineconerevolution.
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