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With devastating statistics and charts dominating our current news cycle, being in a constant state of anxiety has become exceptionally common. [Absolut Art](https://www.absolutart.com/us/absolut-art-x-mona-chalabi/) — the online limited edition prints platform — has found a silver lining in this moment of fear and apprehension. The brand has teamed up with artist, writer, and data journalist Mona Chalabi to create a series of uplifting prints for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.
Inspired by the natural world to give us a sense of relief, the series serves as a reminder that, however uncertain things may be, we remain grounded. The collection, titled _Numbers to Help You Breathe_, touches on heartwarming statistics, such as the tides flowing in and out, and love birds soaring in flight.
As Absolut Art CEO Nahema Mehta stated, “Empowering audiences to connect with artists is at the heart of what we do, and in these isolating times, cultivating those connections feels more important than ever. In the face of a chaotic news cycle, Mona’s drawings make space for a quiet moment of hopeful reflection in honor of Earth Day.”
Chalabi advocates for quality-driven data journalism, transforming complicated spreadsheets into charming illustrations and videos, which have appeared in _The New Yorker, The New York Times_, and _The Guardian_. For the past five weeks, she’s been sharing data-driven illustrations about the pandemic on her [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/monachalabi/), to help educate and inform her 216K followers.
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She’s transmitted statistics from everything like union wages and the gender pay gap to female hairiness and panythose sales in Japan. In addition to stints working at the Bank of England, the Economist Intelligence Unit and the International Organization for Migration, Mona created and produced the Emmy-nominated video series _Vaginal Dispatches_, and in 2018, joined Netflix’s comedy show _The Fix_ as a data expert.
Here’s a peek into chats with Absolut Art’s Creative Director Michelle Grey, and artist Mona Chalabi:
**How do you choose artists from Absolut Art's collections?**
**Michelle Grey:** Art has the power to convey ideas and ideals about the times we're living in, so I look for artists that are interested in providing visual commentary on the important issues of today. Beyond a piece just being beautiful, I think people are more engaged with works that have meaning, not just to them as individuals, but to society as a whole. I'm definitely drawn to work that grapples with political, gender and cultural issues, and whose narrative thread contributes to civic discourse that probes the mind and jossles the spirit. But I'm also partial to just loving an artist's work purely because it's beautiful - beauty has the power to heal and uplift us too. Sometimes it doesn't have to be that deep, and I just love the colors and the shapes of an artist's pieces, and I know they'd look lovely in someone's living room. So I guess I choose artists instinctually, by how their work feels when I look at it, or whether their story piques my curiosity.
**We’re all, to say the least, a bit anxious right now. But you’ve put across some very lighthearted, timeless messages with these drawings, about the Earth’s rotation and the motion of the waves. These things aren’t likely to change anytime soon. What’s the importance of these facts even in a worrisome time with immediate concerns?**
**Mona Chalabi:** It’s precisely because everything is changing so much day-to-day that I wanted to look for the constants. The few times I’m going outside, nature is so confronting. The trees are blooming and you see the continuity of something that happens every year. It’s comforting, I think. It’s not to make you happy exactly, but to provide some comfort as an antidote to the anxiety induced by the world all around us.
**The world is so chaotic right now. Why do we need art?**
**Michelle Grey:** There's a famous quotation by Toni Morrison that many artists refer to when times are tough "This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal." I think in these troubled times art does have the power to heal and unite, and at the same time reflect our cultural values. It's also an important marker of history - humans need art to share their individual and shared history - artists today are providing the stories that will be told to future generations about the times we're living in. Art and creativity provide catharsis for communities, and emotional relief both for the artists and the viewer. It's been scientifically proven that being around beautiful objects - whether it's nature, an amazing architectural structure, a beautiful piece of art - changes your brain chemistry and releases more "feel-good" chemicals. I think today, more than ever we all need a few more "feel-good" chemicals!
**Did you have an “aha” moment when you realized the diversity of ways you could use statistics?**
**Mona Chalabi:** I’m always trying to make the mood consistent with the subject itself. If you look at most data visualization, there’s a supposed neutrality. I try to make the visualization represent the subject itself in its overall tonality. For the ones I’m making for Absolut Art, I experimented with watercolors and then I used felt tips, which I don’t normally use. I started out working on Nate Silver’s blog, FiveThirtyEight, and it was so draining, it’s so emotional. I became disillusioned with standard data journalism and wanted to try something different.
