An epoch can only be recorded by the artists of that time, the artists who have lived through it. Each age must have its own artists to express it and to record it for the future.

Portal or Hole: Meditation on Art, Religion, Race and the Pandemic, by Pamela M. Connell, began as an exploration of the art of self-portrait, and evolved to consideration of popular psychology, particularly personality types and tendencies, such as introversion, introspection and self-centeredness.

Ultimately, during months of pandemic isolation, the final chapter emerged as a diaristic chronicle of life during coronavirus primarily in two midwestern cities, Peoria and Des Moines. In Portal or Hole, the candor of the writing, the poignancy of the story and the author's narrative- style pictures will hook the reader.

Pamela highlights her perceptions of the introvert life experience, lockdown and coronavirus; also, observations about the 2020 political campaign, culture wars, climate change, systemic racial injustice and disability (her mother's dementia). Arm-chair psychologists, artists, introverts, extroverts (or anyone who falls anywhere on the Myers-Briggs bell-shaped curve), human rights activists, politicians, lawyers, suburban housewives, those interested in the decline of church attendance in modern-day America, and the concomitant interest in "spirituality", will all be drawn to this timely, original book.

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