“This series of paintings is based on photographs I took last year in New Jersey and New York, at railway stations and on the subway. What interested me then was how subtly legs and feet are expressive of individuals. Now, I see the images differently, as statements from another age. How different life was. We could be in close proximity with strangers. Yet we took care to remain ‘distant’. We averted our gaze, we lowered our eyes, we did not look at the people we stood next to.

Today, I see these images as a reminder of how closely connected we are in our humanity, world-wide, and how we should remember that when life returns to normal.”

— Alice Anne Ellis (Richmond, VA)