Last spring, Barbara Earl Thomas was working diligently on her upcoming exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum, painstakingly cutting silhouettes of Black and brown children into large swaths of stiff paper. Then the pandemic brought everything to a halt. But Thomas stayed on course, at first working alone, and eventually aided by assistants in her outdoor studio. With the nation’s attention newly alert to social justice, she expands upon her lifelong journey of exploring race and innocence through revelatory visual art.
 

As weeks turn into months, Washingtonians try to make sense of the pandemic. Every walk of life has been upended by COVID-19, and as cases continue to multiply, we have tried to learn how to adjust. We've faced changes to rituals, celebrations, work and play. Elections and another national reckoning with institutionalized racism merged together with the health crisis to present unprecedented challenges, isolation and adjustments.

The state’s park system has been the ultimate outdoor refuge this year, but crowds, trash and social distancing have caused stress.