Originally from San Francisco, Michelle McKinney is an early-career artist who currently lives and works in Central Illinois. Prior to starting painting in 2007, she studied and worked as a fashion designer in Texas and the Bay Area in California. Using primarily acrylics and watercolor, her paintings and illustrations are mostly figurative with elements of surrealism. Her work aims to evoke a range of emotions through color and expression, and hopes to reach the viewer through recognition of the parts of themselves that are universal. An advocate of health education, she hopes her pieces submitted to the global campaign for COVID-19 help to inform and inspire