The Parcel Thief by Kevin Shipley
Commissioned by Maureen McKeon
Inspired by the confession…
Artist Statement
When I listened to the story about the stolen food box it occurred to me that COVID-19 has stolen many things from all of us. I had a vision of an anthropomorphized version of the COVID-19 virus stealing... a parcel containing life as we knew it before this pandemic came along. This is what I decided would be the subject of my piece.
In a sense, the other COVID confessions I read are represented in the piece, as well, because they all talk about ways in which life has changed for people—i.e., “life as we knew it” has been stolen from us. I would like to note that the face, arms and legs of the virus, and the surprised-looking individual sitting off to the right, were all created using photographs of me.
