Artists' Statement for Graffiti Wall

            As I was thinking about what to include in my graffiti wall, one image came to mind. The image of a child with something covering her mouth and the word silenced beneath it. The reason why this picture came to mind is because many of the children in the books we read were forced into silence and keeping quiet or manipulated in such a way that didn’t allow them to make their own choices. The little girl in the center of my poster represents the girl in Sold, who has her childhood stolen from her by way of human trafficking. In Crossing the Wire, a boy is forced to grow up by crossing the border into America to make enough money to support his family back in Mexico. I didn’t use a child for this photo, but I did provide a picture of immigrants to represent the many people who have to make the trek to America to make a better life for themselves and their loved ones. For A Long Way Gone, I have a picture of a boy soldier who, like the author Ishmael Beah, must have been manipulated and brainwashed into becoming a boy soldier for the R.U.F. in Sierra Leone. Finally, I have a photo of children during the Chinese Cultural Revolution dressed the same and holding their red books to represent the book Revolution Is Not A Dinner Party.

            To go along with the different images representing the areas we studied and the books we read, I included certain words that went along with the events within the stories we read. For example, I have a picture of a boy soldier from Sierra Leone and surrounding that picture I included the words “war,” “hero,” and “brave.” These words go along with that image specifically because this boy represents the children who were forced into becoming child soldiers in the Sierra Leon Civil War. I used the words “hero” and “brave” because those are the types of words that the adults who converted them may have used to describe these children if they were to become soldiers and fight for them. These words could also be used by people who hear about the stories of the children who survived and were able to escape. So it goes both ways which I thought was interesting and an important thing to think about when looking at these words combined with the image of the boy soldier.

            Another theme running through most of the books we read for this class were the three words I placed in the top right corner of my graffiti wall. These words are “fear,” “loss,” and “survival.” There was fear in every single one of the books we read, usually resulting from some form of suppression. Loss was also a major part of each of the books we read and came in all different forms from loss of innocence, childhoods, or personal belongings, to loss of homes, family members and other loved ones. Finally, survival was the goal for the characters in most of the books that we read and for the people who have and are actually living through the events and topics we’ve discussed in class. Like loss, survival comes in all different forms from survival in war to survival in different living conditions. I thought fear, loss, and survival, were very important and impactful factors in each of the books we’ve read and in all of the topics and events we’ve covered in class which is why I made the lettering so large.

            I tried to make sure that I covered most of the subjects we’ve discussed in class. I wasn’t able to fit everything, so I chose some things that struck me the most and which I thought were probably the most important things to portray in my graffiti wall. For most of the subjects I included, I was able to use multiple images and words. However, for family, I only used one picture because I thought it was pretty self explanatory and not as major of a topic to focus on as war and loss of childhoods. Overall, I think my graffiti wall says more than the images and specific words say by themselves. I think the words and images I’ve included in my graffiti wall do a good job of portraying the costs and results of war, human trafficking, and borders. I’m happy with what I came up with and I think, or more truthfully hope, that people will be able to make connections and get more out of my graffiti wall than what is explicitly on the poster.