What does home mean to me in these difficult ‘Covid’ times, times of worldwide isolation, restriction, social distancing…? 

Home can be a place to retreat to and a place of love, for me a place where I create my Art and nurture my Family, but for many less fortunate people perhaps it has become an uncomfortable place during this epidemic…

They say “Home is where the Heart is…” but in time of Covid, social distance and self-isolation at home can be devastating, destructive, for those who live alone, or indeed in abusive relationships, with no recourse to kindly human touch, empathetic human interaction…Please! lets nurture and lets celebrate the Kindly Human Touch!

Home is an online exhibition at The Corridor Gallery in Harare, and here are two of my artworks from that show…

Lin Barrie, “Social Distance“, reaching, needing, but not quite touching….

They say “Home is where the Heart is…” but in time of Covid, social distance and no recourse to kindly human touch, empathetic human interaction can lead to a breakdown od our mental well being, linked to our physical health……lets celebrate the “Hand on Heart” gesture, a form of greeting in many societies, and a gesture of love and goodwill…

Lin Barrie, charcoal sketch detail, showing a Hand on Heart gesture…respect, care for those around us, a universal symbol of love…

Handshaking and hugging are universal greetings which are compromised by Covid.

hand on Heart is another of my works on virtual display in the Home exhibition, at The Corridor Gallery, Harare

What do we Do instead of a handshake or a hug!? Place Hand on Heart instead! I love it, here reflected in my painting “To Touch or Not To Touch”, currently on display at the Signs of The Times, annual summer exhibition, Gallery Delta in Harare…..

The ‘Hand on Heart” gesture gives perfect connection, a sense of respect and caring to the receiver….

Isolation and self protection from virus infection encourages people to use alternative modes of greeting instead of a handshake. Fist bumping, smiling, bowing, waving, and non-contact Namaste gestures, raised brows, smiling, wai bow, two claps, hand over heart, sign language wave, or the shaka sign elbow bump, the fist bump, foot tapping ….

Don’t Touch… a mantra being drummed into us all by the fears of pandemic and plague…

My painting To Touch, or Not, mixed media on stretched canvas, 2 x 3 feet, also on display at Gallery Delta, Harare – Signs of the Times, Summer Exhibition.

In our Tsonga (Hlengwe) tradition in the south east of zimbabwe (the northern Tsonga region towards the Limpopo River), Women use hand clapping horizontally and Men use hand clapping vertically as a form of thanks/greeting. Kubamavoko is the act of hand clapping,  Bamavoko is the noun.

Or, a wonderfully friendly solution for covid concerns, men use a Hand on Heart greeting…Kusheweta is the act of greeting, Sheweta the noun…….