Two months into the COVID Pandemic, I was completely smothered by the loneliness of our forced isolation. Though safe and well, I missed human interaction but also the sites and sounds of everyday life: the things we have always taken for granted, the things that frame the way we live.

I thought of bustling downtown Chicago which we had visited the year before and realized its streets, stores and trains were now empty and silent. I chose to paint an image of the energetic city as I remembered it, brimming with light, motion, and color....the way it looked "Just Before."