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GILBERT SUN NEWS | SEPTEMBER 6, 2020
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Gilbert artists’ work honors medical workers BY SRIANTHI PERERA GSN Contributor
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eople lucky enough to escape the debilitating illness caused by COVID-19 may not have met the healthcare workers on the frontlines. But they are aware of the critical and dangerous role they are playing during these troubling times. Four members of the Gilbert Visual Art League joined the international community to pay homage to healthcare workers via brushstrokes. Jane Bradley, Rosalie Vaccaro, Shelley Marler and Glenda Nieman have painted their appreciation of medical heroes and sent their portraits to the subjects. “Each health care worker has a story. The bravery and selflessness of those on the frontlines is amazing. The art that has been created for them around the world is a small offering for what they do,” said Jane Bradley, who took the initiative on the project on behalf of the Gilbert group. Bradley created a portrait of an anesthesiology resident in Chicago and a
Gilbert Artist Jane Bradley painted this portrait of a Chicago anesthesiologist.
just have to do the best to stay sane as we can and to find a way to help others. For me that is painting,” she said. The project started in England when artist Tom Croft presented an online exhibition of more than 700 works of staff at National Health Service during U.K.’s lockdown. His idea was to galvanize artists across the country and celebrate the frontline workers. The idea spread around the world’s arts community almost as easily as the virus did. Bradley was contacted by French artist Aldo Balding who started a group called Soignantssurlefront on Facebook. “We put offers on our pages both on Facebook and Instagram for Rosalie Vaccarro paid tribunte to Jacqueline Rios, a phlebotomist at people to request paintings. After New York City’s Montifiore Hospital. completing two of my paintings, some of my students also followed. doctor at New York’s Mount Sinai HospiOnce we painted these, we posted them tal, among others. She plans to do more as soon as she re- with information about the people we have painted,” Bradley said. covers from eye surgery. “The pandemic is frightening to everyone. It has changed the whole world. We see PORTRAITS page 20
Gilbert teen’s site connects youth to issues BY STACI HAUK GSN Contributor
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fter spending four years on her high school’s speech and debate team, 17-year-old Delaney Krieger is trying to fill a need she sees in Gilbert as the General Election approaches. So the Gilbert teen, a senior at Arizona College Prep – Erie in Chandler Unified, has launched: time-to-vote.com to promote knowledgeable voting by young people – a subject she is passionate about. Delaney said what she learned in speech and debate about the nation’s
Gilbert resident Delaney Krieger’s website time-tovote.com aims to engage young people, politicians.
(Special to GSN)
political process enabled her to see deficiencies. “I started to think, what is one of the largest issues relating to people my age? This was when I came across a statistic representing ages 18-28 having the lowest voter turnout,” Delaney explained. “I was shocked since these are the exact individuals that are our future and possess the power to make a change,” she continued. “So, to put it simply, my first goal was to just increase voter turnout.” Through research of organizations with a similar mission, Krieger learned about advocating for voter turnout – but
that didn’t seem sufficient. While she believes that goal is important, she also feels too many elected officials don’t necessarily seem to accurately represent the views of people her age share. That presented a larger problem that she set out to solve. “I continued to do more research as to why my demographic isn’t going to the polls,” she said. “I conducted informal surveys, spoke with some of my friends and others and found that one of the major inhibiting
see
VOTE page 20
