Local artist paints 100 faces to help fight COVID-19
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WINSTON-SALEM, NC (WGHP) — A local artist is using her talent to help fight COVID-19.
It’s called the 100 Faces Project. In 100 days, artist Anna Jarrell interviews and paints a portrait of 100 people in the community.
To Jarrell, practice makes perfect and 100 days of painting is a lot of practice. She just finished up painting 34 out of 100 on Tuesday.
“This is Morgan Moxley. She is a first-year teacher at Vienna Elementary,” Jarrell said, showing her latest subject.
When COVID-19 began, Jarrell incorporated the pandemic into her project. Painting 100 people in 100 days and interviewing them about how the crisis is affecting them personally while taking donations for Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
Anyone can sponsor a painting for $400. That money is a direct donation to the hospital’s COVID-19 response fund.
So far, Jarrell has raised $4,000.
“I thought as long as I was doing it, maybe I could do some good while I was at it. A lot of these are just me wanting to check in on certain people in the community,” Jarrell said.
She sets up a day to meet with each subject and takes their picture from a distance while asking them how they’re holding up during the global crisis. Then she paints their image onto canvas. The process takes about three hours.
“Honestly most of the time we both end up crying. The project has been way more than I thought it was going to be when I got into it as far as the humanity aspect of it,” Jarrell said.
The portraits feature different people across the community. Jarrell hopes that her 100 paintings will someday be a part of a COVID-19 gallery or put on display at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
“This is a community project so the idea of the community being able to go see it and show their parents and their kids,” Jarrell said.
The donations help pay for equipment and supplies that protect patients and employees, patient expenses and vaccine research. If you would like to nominate or sponsor a subject, you can contact Jarrell through Facebook or Instagram at A. Jarrell Custom Art.
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