16. Arrive Alive Contest

Artist Statement

For this project, we were tasked with following the prompt of Joe Bornstein's "Arrive Alive" Competition. An annual high school art contest held to prompt safer and smarter driving; high schoolers are tasked with creating a piece that revolves around these ideas. Drinking and driving—along with using your cellphone—being the main things that I associate with distracted driving, I decided to incorporate that imagery into my overall piece.

Going for a more solid style, both in use of shades and forms in the piece, I made the background simple so that you'd focus on the figures in the car and the words in the background and foreground. Considering most automobile related accidents are related to consumption of alcohol and texting, I decided to include them in the car along with another individual. Showing them all very happy, 'having fun', the human in the car eyes aren't on the road; as he's distracted by his drink and his cellphone. Using "Arrive Alive" to fill most of the background, I wanted people to be able to make connections between the individuals in the car and the words behind. You cant arrive alive if you drink or use your cellphone while driving.

I think this piece came out ok. I like the overall concept and formatting of the piece, but I wished I used color. The solid black and white style appealed to me at first, but after seeing the final product, it didn't come out as I expected it to. Watercolor and pencil, two materials that I'm more experienced in, I believe would've worked better in this piece.