Hands Sculpture

In this project I took a current issue and made a piece of art supporting it. The topic I chose was immigration into the U.S. To make this sculpture I used plaster and alginate for my hands, wood for the background, and I also painted the entire piece. To make the hands I put my hands in a bin full of alginate, which is a material that has the consistency of Jello. My hands created an area to pour plaster in, and this created my hands. After the plaster had solidified, I pulled the alginate away from the hands. Then I painted the hands and added the flags. Next, I cut the wood for the background and painted it. Finally I glued the hands on to finish the project. One element of art I used was color. I did this by painting the hands like the world and painting the words in the background in red and blue to make them prominent. One principle of design I used was contrast. The bright colors of the letters in the background contrasted the white.

One composition rule and technique I used was formal balance. I used this because I centered the hands on the wood and balanced the writing in the background as well. My project changed a lot over the course of this project. At first I didn't know how I would present my project, and I came up with the idea of wood as the background, under and behind the hands. After that I knew I would need a way to activate the background so I wrote "welcome to the U.S." in the background to make my message clear. I also wrote welcome in a variety of different languages including Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Somalian, Persian (Farsi), Hindi, Dutch, and Arabic.

The message of this project is that refugees should be let into the U.S. They should not only be allowed in, but they should be welcomed as a part of our society. Recently our president has tried to pass an act which would not allow people from countries including Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, and Iran to come into the U.S. or even back into the U.S. I am glad this has not passed because it would be unrightfully ostracizing people from the U.S. and denying people a home that they need. This artwork is meant to show how I believe that everyone should be welcomed into this country. The part of this piece I'm the most proud about is how it looks good and effectively conveys a message. The hardest part of this project was probably painting on the different languages, but I actually found it interesting to do. This shows my strengths and weaknesses as a learner because I was able to learn to create a piece incorporating my hands that conveyed a message I believe in.