These Snacks are pages from my journal, where lately I’ve had nothing to say.

In the early days of the pandemic, we turned to video platforms like Houseparty, FaceTime, and Zoom to mimic IRL social gatherings. But as the months went on, these forms of communication quickly proved insufficient and exhausting.

As I began to feel like communication was slipping away from me, I switched off my digital technology and turned to the analog. I found myself sketching the emojis that I used frequently in my texts and chats: like the hibiscus, which reminds me of my grandparents’ house in Guatemala City, and the flamingo, of which I’m terrified in real life, although I find its electric pinks mesmerizing in the iPhone rendering.

Painting emojis, these predetermined pictures that exist in our keyboards, became my way of slowing down.

–Sophia Le Fraga