Ebola

I wanted to highlight three brave heroes of the Ebola crisis of 2014.

First, the photographers, namely Daniel Berehulak of the NYT, whose excruciating images of the West African epidemic drew global attention and helped move the world to care. This painting draws heavily from his photographs.

Second, the doctors and nurses who donned themselves each day  from head to toe in protective suits, face masks and three pairs of gloves in the stifling heat to care for the victims and avoid contagion.

Third, and most important to me, the burial workers who risked their lives to cremate the dead, stopping the spread of the disease.. Because  tradition dictated burial over  cremation, they suffered as social outcasts once the epidemic was controlled.

The bird like masks reference the masks worn by doctors during the Bubonic Plague when they thought the disease was airborne rather than contracted from fleas and infected rodents.