Artist Memorializes Victims of COVID-19 With Origami Cranes

A Los Angeles artist took it upon herself to memorialize the Americans who lost their lives to COVID-19 by creating origami cranes.

With hundreds already hanging from her Matter Studio Gallery, Karla Funderburk continues to add more as she copes with the loss of thousands of lives.

“I was feeling the loss, and one way to process that was that I started folding cranes because cranes are a very traditional Japanese symbol of carrying the soul to heaven,” Funderburk said during an interview with the Associated Press.

She was initially folding cranes all by herself until she realized the death toll reached 88,000 on May 14.

Funderburk calculated it would take her 24 years to craft 88,000 cranes.

She explained it was only two days later the United States reported 90,000 deaths.

Funderburk thought to herself, “I can’t do this alone.”

She began to receive help.

“I started receiving boxes and bags. Sometimes I would get one crane with one name on it, and then I would get some boxes would have 300,” Funderburk said.

She added, “I feel like this space is holding, holding the place for the remembrances of the souls we’re losing.”

Watch her comments below:

The United States continues to battle the coronavirus as states are seeing surges in the number of cases.

On Aug. 13, the nation reported at least 1,219