FALMOUTH, ME.- When the world stopped due to the pandemic in the spring of 2020, Portland-based painter Eva Goetz put paint to canvas and began documenting our collective COVID-19 experience. "What Was That?" New Paintings by Eva Goetz features 19 works that visually report, reflect, and transcend the hurt and confusion that played out within us all during 2020. The exhibition is on view at Moss Galleries from January 8 through February 6, 2021. Ten percent of sales will benefit Spurwink, a Maine nonprofit that provides behavioral health and education services to adults and children.

None of us could have predicted how the world would change during the pandemic, but artist Eva Goetz found inspiration from this historic moment in time. From reports of daily infection rates to the Black Lives Matter movement and the presidential election, Goetz has chronicled our sequestered pain, desires, and politics during the last year.

Born in Texas, with Mexico next door, Goetz was influenced by the land and Mexican folk art. Both the dusty colors found within the landscape of the Southwest and the bright palette found within narrative folk paintings influence her use of color. Spiritually, storytelling, and pattern making are also integral parts of her work.

Goetz's paintings are colorful, playful, and filled with energetic dots. As circles, these dots can become windows into consciousness and as points, the dots punctuate beginnings and endings. "The paintings punctuated with points remind us that all sentient life is simply bits of colored light," said Eva Goetz. "Viewed within this frame, you and I become more alike than different, sharing concerns i.e. caring for the health and well-being of our families, having work that sustains and nourishes us, being able to afford health care and roofs over our heads, and to be treated with respect and dignity, represent many of our desires and needs."

Eva Rose Goetz was raised in Texas and lives in South Portland, Maine. She received a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin and a MS in museum special education from Bank Street College in New York. Her work has been exhibited at museums and galleries throughout New England and New York including at Cove Street Arts, Farnsworth Art Museum, Maine Jewish Museum, and deCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts.