Fractured Covid 19: Memento Mori vs Memento Vivere by Memory Press

At the onset of the lockdown in March 2020 Pisano began a journal, this piece uses those entries and her views of the status of the country during those initial months of the pandemic.
Maria Pisano: "This artist book takes on the journey we, in our country, are being raked through in this epidemic, reflecting the constant barrage of lies, irresponsibility, inefficiencies and ineptitude by our Washington leaders, causing many to suffer physically, mentally and to go hungry in the wealthiest nation in the world. Seen from my perspective as a daily journal and reflecting on what is presented to me via television, newspapers and the internet - the constant barrages of news that are mind altering and unnerving. The work compares the response from our government to the virus vs. first responders and essential workers, who are the real heroes in our lives: individuals who are selfless and reliable, performing their work with empathy and devotion and placing their lives on the line, like Roseann and Gabriella Tucci, Anni Park and Michelle Romeo, Cristina Steo, all nurses whose voices and concerns are added to this journal. They give us HOPE; their COURAGE, DEVOTION, HUMANITY, Honor, INTEGRITY and Truth are what is holding all of us up, to show the world that we can make it, because of selfless, committed workers. It is interjected with images of the natural progression and beauty of the seasons that for me are a blessing and provide constancy, giving me hope. My garden is a place of joy, fragility and renewal, a focus to counteract the daily indignities in the news, a place to regenerate”
"Collected in a phase box, the work has three parts. A 70 page Journal (March - June 2020) and poems by Maria G. Pisano in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that upended our lives alongside a 3D Installation, presenting two contrasting views: Tents of Hope vs. Masks of Death. In the work, symbolic tent structures with seven humanitarian qualities are used to carry the message of frontline and essential workers in the format of a protective circle / embrace. In contrast, the government's response is represented by the use of seven masques referencing Edgar Allan Poe's story 'The Masque of the Red Death' which are paired by the Seven Deadly Sins from Dante's 'The Divine Comedy’: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and greed. These are directly related to the deadly sins committed by the President and his henchmen."