At the turn of 2020, the world came face to face with a novel coronavirus. As we all watched the news where each nation reported rising cases, it wasn't long before a worldwide pandemic was declared. As a result, humanity was faced with new difficulties, struggles and challenges. Nevertheless, we were able to stay strong, withstand, adjust and adapt to the new arising situations.

This year’s ARTSIDEOUT 2021 theme is ‘Endurance’ and what that means to us. The title of my artwork is “Rain Rain Go Away”. For this piece, I focused on digital drawing, while incorporating a sense of word art.

In my drawing, the pandemic is represented by the rainstorm and the word art within each raindrop highlights the struggles and challenges we face. Although these difficulties may have been encountered on its own before, with the pandemic, everything came down at once, like a storm. The Earth holding an umbrella in the illustration is symbolic of humanity’s endurance. The importance of an umbrella during a rainstorm ties to the key role endurance continues to play in overcoming these trying times. The words lining the umbrella express what it means to endure, while the word art on the inside conveys the positive outcomes of coping through the pandemic.

As we continue to adapt to new lifestyles, we stay optimistic, hoping for clearing skies and a sunny day.