United We Stand

John Fekner used his graffiti art to create an awareness of the social issue of poverty. Sisters Brothers is a spray painted art on the walls of Berlin, Germany. The artwork signifies four children, two girls and two boys, standing in line above a black rubber belt that represents a barricade. The worn and breaking barricade symbolizes the Gaza strip. Fekner shows the bruises that can be inflicted by the black rubber belt by painting the two girls red and purple and the boys black and blue. The children move on united in a line to show that they will overcome their harsh conditions together. Even though Fekner depicts the poverty in Israel, I think that this social issue has an effect on all parts of the world. This art can provide information and facts on the topic not otherwise available to other parts of the world. The information on the poverty can transcend to all people. I think people could react by collaborating and interacting together on a solution to end poverty among children.

Once I researched about Fekner’s Sisters Brothers I wanted to do a painting about poverty as well. My composition is skinny, frail children of different races reaching out to a table full of food. The composition would be balanced with children placed on one side of the painting and the table of food on the other. The overlapping of food and children will create 3-dimensional space. The table will be made up of vertical and horizontal lines. Curved lines that make up the children will give a sense of movement to the painting. I plan to paint the food with values of red, orange, yellow, green and purple in order to make them look realistic. The people will be painted in a beige, brown and/or soft pink. The background will be painted in black to give the felling of isolation and emptiness.

I want the viewer to feel the sadness that I felt as I learned about Fekner’s Sisters Brothers. The viewer needs to see the physical and emotional affects that poverty can have on a child. 

http://johnfekner.com/

 

It's Off To Work We Go

Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry illustrates the industrial forced labor. Throughout the mural he paints people of all different colors running the machines. He showed that this would be a world- wide problem affecting all races. Diego wanted to show how the progress of industrialism can be dangerous to society. One panel of the mural portrays men in gas masks building bombs for war. He thought the new industry was a catalyst for destruction. He paints hands coming up from a pyramid. The pyramid symbolizes his Mexican culture. Some hands hold industry tools while other hands look disfigured, representing the crippling affects industry would have on the world. I think Rivera’s Detroit Industry affects the forced labor in a way that could change a person’s viewpoint on the issue. The people who think of only the positive aspects of industrial labor force might change their minds about the issue once they view Rivera’s painting. I think society would react in a negative way to Rivera’s Detroit Industry. Society could vocally and physically protest against the forced industrial labor. 

  I plan to paint about the current social issue of the unemployment rate. I would show a line of poverty stricken people in front of a bunch of business buildings in the background. These people of different ages and races would look dirty and have ripped clothes. Some of them would be begging for money. Others would hold signs asking for help in getting a job. The balance of the composition would be evenly spaced. I plan to place the people in the foreground and the business buildings in the background giving it the illusion of Three-dimensional space. I would illustrate a pattern of crosshatching lines to create the business buildings. I would use curved lines to create the shapes of the people. Values of brown, orange and yellow would make up the people’s skin. I would emphasize their colors by painting bright shades of blue, green, red, and purple.

I want to make an awareness of this issue of unemployment like Rivera did on the issue of forced labor. I think it is important people know that this is a huge issue going on all over the world. I want people to be inspired to find a solution to the overwhelming unemployment rate.

http://www.diego-rivera.org/murals.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103337403

Casualities of War

     Echo of a Scream was a painting created by David Alfaro Siqueiros. This painting was considered one of his most important and symbolic paintings. The painting depicts a young screaming child surrounded by the destructive aftermath of war. The African-American child sits alone on rubble of broken objects. Siqueiros emphasizes the screaming by adding a bigger replica of the child’s head screaming behind him. Echo of a Scream demonstrates the gloomy despair of a child whose future is now unclear due to war. At this time Siqueiros was involved in the Civil War and wanted to his painting to represent the social revolution of war and the affects of fascism. This painting can have a serious affect on the social issue of war. This painting comes across as an advertisement of what affects war can have on the people who survive it. It looks as if Siqueiros wanted to spread the affects of war to the world. I think people forget the major consequences of war. War causes massive destruction to a society leaving them in what Siqueiros depicts as rubble. A lot of their resources are gone, leaving them without much of a future. I think the reaction society could have on Echo of a Scream is to protest against war. I believe society would see this painting and want to find ways to help out countries that are being affected by war.

     My painting that I plan to design will be on abortion. I personally believe that having an abortion is murder and want to express my feelings toward this social issue like Siqueiros expressed his. For my composition, I am going to have a close up of a young girl’s pregnant stomach. I plan on painting a fetus on the stomach giving the viewer the illusion that they can see into the girl’s abdomen.  In the background, to the left will be a clinic. Outside the clinic, people will be protesting with signs that say “Abortion is Murder” and “Save a Life.”  The change in scale and the overlapping will give the illusion of space. Curved lines will be applied to design the shape of the girl, fetus and the protesters. Vertical and horizontal lines will make up the clinic and signs. The fetus will be painted in variations of red while the background will be made up of neutral colors. The fetus will be the focal point since it is the largest object in the painting. I will create movement in the painting with the diagonal and curved lines of people protesting in the background. The painting visual weight is more towards the right with the close-up of the girl’s stomach causing an asymmetrical balance in the painting.

When I researched about Siqueiros paintings on social issues I became inspired to do the same on the social issue of abortion. I want to be able to express and advertise to people the affects of these social issues. 

http://www.bennyssierra.com/2010/04/29/echo-of-a-scream-david-alfaro-siqueiros-1896-1974.html

http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/309-the-artist-as-activist-david-alfaro-siqueiros-1896%E2%80%931974