jrowe

Our piece is a visual and interactive art piece which is documented as a single photo collage for the purposes of judging. The piece consists of a path covered with chalk footprints as well as quotes that exemplify the themes of hope and justice. The mission of our organization is to provide mental health support in a youth-driven, community based manner, so here we focused on emphasizing the importance of unity and community to create hope and justice. Every trail of footprints represents a member of our community who worked on the project, building and walking the path of hope together. The quotes we chose were relevant to individuals and the group as a whole, and were intended to reflect our sentiments on mental health. The piece serves as a reminder to us that we should always be hopeful because there is a large, passionate community around us, and that together we can create our own justice by breaking down the stigma around mental health. We hope that others take away the same message, and we created the piece so that it is visible from the sidewalk to passerby.

In my design I wanted to show that there is more than one way to look at something. In life we can choose to focus on the positive or we can focus on the negative. Every day is an opportunity to see the good.

Throughout my school years I have struggle myself with people putting labels on me: I’m the SPED kid, I’m not able to do this or hearing I can’t do that or complete a task because of my challenges with ADHD. I also experienced recently cultural discrimination at school by peers because of being Latina, because of my parents immigrants roots, or because I’m an English Learner still at school. When I worked on this piece, I just wanted to let my feelings and emotions out, and let the world and myself know that I’m free of labels, I can be more than 1 thing, I can be so many things and I can be good at them. I’m aware of my challenges and labels don’t define me.

The concept behind my artwork is fast fashion and the many cases of abuse to which it is connected to. What my artwork represents is a teen who is saddened by the effect of fast fashion, but ignorant of their growing contributions to it. A figure with flowing hair is contrasted by the more explicit forms of fabric despite herself being made of fabric. She is the color of the ocean to represent its vast depth. This is representative of the growing production of clothing that gets larger every year; it almost seems that we’re drowning in a mountain of clothes. This is further enhanced by my chosen medium, consisting of fibrous materials (fabric and yarn) to emulate the materials used in the textile industry. The figure is closing her eyes to represent her ignorance of the problem as it grows around her. Despite the clothing, like I was alluding to earlier she is a part of the problem as well. Her rapid consumerism is taking hold of her life and hurting her simultaneously.