Take Rachel Goerke, a visual communications major and rising senior at UD. When the virus took hold, she had been looking forward to an upcoming study abroad trip with fellow art students, a whirlwind London adventure involving museums, live theater and briefs with professional artists. This would have been Goerke’s first time in Europe, so “it hit me hard when that was postponed,” she said. “I was going to learn so much.”

Rather than crawl under the covers and sulk, Goerke is channeling her disappointment into her work. Over the next few months, as a Summer Fellow at UD, she will design virtual window displays for a women’s clothing brand along with an app prototype that allows for 3-D shopping from home. The idea is to give people an in-store experience — even in quarantine.

“I want the displays to romanticize social distancing,” she said. “I was inspired by carrier pigeons and Romeo and Juliet communicating from a distance. I want it to have that dreamy feel.”

For another class, Goerke designed imagery and merchandise for a fake band by the name of Silent Vegetable. One of her branded items? Not your typical concert tee-shirt, but a COVID-19 inspired face mask.

In the meantime, as a visual editor for The Review student newspaper, Ford has been churning out coronavirus-inspired illustrations to accompany articles on a range of topics.

“This is a way to communicate emotions I can’t put into words,” she said. “And I look at it from a historical perspective, too. Artists have always documented what’s happening around them as a way of marking our place in time.”

For Michael Tapia-Gonzales, rising sophomore majoring in fine arts and visual communications, creating during COVID-19 hasn’t come easily. In May, as he was finishing up the spring semester, he and his brother and parents were all diagnosed with the virus. Tapia-Gonzalez’s father was hit the hardest — already unable to work due to the pandemic, now he could barely walk. He had no choice but to seek hospital attention.

The family has since recovered, Tapia Gonzales said, but the stress of those trying weeks made finding a creative groove in quarantine difficult. Things were further complicated by a lack of access to clay and other supplies he’d been working with in a ceramics class at UD. Suddenly, he needed to make sculptures out of found objects — kitchen plates and paper clips among them. It was a challenge, but, in the end, the experience “forced me to think outside of the box,” he said. “Creating took my mind off of everything.”

The piece, which depicts a nurse wearing a face mask covered in the words “thank you” in multiple languages, will be featured on a sheet of stamps encouraging healthy practices during the time of COVID-19. Available from the UN Postal Administration (UNPA), the sheet will be sold beginning July 24 at stamp dealers around the world, at unstamps.org, and at the UN headquarters in New York, Geneva and Vienna (when these offices reopen). Each sheet will include dollar, Swiss Franc and Euro currencies. A portion of sales will support the UN’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

“This painting is a beautiful, powerful tribute,” said UNPA creative director Rorie Katz, who selected the winning piece, which came with a $500 prize. “I was very pleased to find out the artist is a college student. I had no idea.”

Katz added that she had a strong gut reaction to Fiori’s work — it brought up her own emotions surrounding the virus and the pride she feels for a dear friend serving as a hospice nurse.

Which is, perhaps, a nice reminder: Art isn’t merely helping the students who make it. It’s impacting those lucky enough to encounter it.

For some, despite all the hurt the virus has wrought, that is a reason to celebrate.

“In a lot of ways, this has been a blessing,” said William Deering, assistant professor of advertising and photographic design. “The virus has made us do things we wouldn’t normally do. Because of this, I have students who’ve come alive.”