In a story “Local artist remembers faces of COVID-19 through new project,” KPRC-TV reporter Brandon Walker explains to Houston viewers the art project that international artist Joni Zavitsanos is developing to honor the lives of Houston area people lost to the virus.
“I don’t want these loved ones to be forgotten . . . A life led is worth repeating, worth talking about,” Ms. Zavitsanos told the local NBC affiliate reporter. She recounted a couple of the stories about the folks who died because of the virus as she applied gold leaf halos to their pictures. The halos match the modern Byzantine painting style she inherited from her father.
One man she is memorializing helped turned drug addicts to truck drivers. Another was about to get out of a halfway house. One was a loved grandmother. “They were beloved cousins, uncles and brothers,” she said.
Ms. Zavitsanos has more than 100 souls commemorated and plans to add many more. She hopes this touching tribute will find a permanent and public Houston area home some day in the future.