Being Unique and Being YOURSELF Makes You Normal

Artist Statement

Being Unique and Being YOURSELF Makes You Normal

Taylor

My piece includes quotes that inspire people who are discriminated against to take pride in who they are. There is a electrocardiogram (EKG) going across the diamond to represent that we are all breathing, living things, and we all are lucky to have a beating heart which symbolized by the four leaf clover that is on the EKG. The heart that is on the EKG symbolizes how we should all love each other for all our differences. The hands holding in the middle represent that different races are united, that we are all part of the same team, and that we should stand tall together. The last part is the glass shards that surround the diamond, it was initially to take up the white space. But! I think it represents how we use to be broken and now we have gotten closer to each other and have started to accept each other.

I chose no discrimination as my human right to look into because I feel like this human right needs to be noticed more. I felt like if I chose this human right to do a piece on, it would bring the awareness of all the seperating and outcasting of people because of their gender, religion, and race. I thought that if I did a piece on it maybe people who saw it would try to stop criticizing and discriminating against people that are different.

Lots of things inspired me to make this piece, but I think the biggest one was that quite a few of my friends are bullied and put to the sides because of the way they are. I have a friend who is a strong believer in God and she is treated completely different than other people I know. She is such an amazing young lady who doesn't let people put her down because she's female or because she's Catholic. Every time someone tries to treat anyone else different, she sticks up for the person who is being treated badly.

Also, in my research I read an article called Women Take the Wheel. It talked about how since the women in Saudi Arabia had a different gender than male they got completely separated. They couldn’t do half the things the men did. Also, women have to be completely covered up. They couldn't go shopping with men, and couldn’t have the same jobs. Even with the jobs they could go to, they would work just as hard but wouldn't be paid as much.

My message for my piece is that we are all different. We should love and cherish our differences, talk about our beliefs, and about our religions, embrace our skin colors, stand tall for our gender. You are you, stop letting other people discriminate against you. We all have a heartbeat meaning we all are living, breathing, human beings. We should be treated as one. Who made the “normal” anyway? The normal is different to everyone! If you’re Catholic, then that's normal for you. If you’re a female, then that's normal. If you’re black or white, that's normal to you. People need to stop discriminating and focus on other real world issues.