Stars & Stripes

Artist Statement

At first I thought the stars and stripes project was just to recreate the flag. I thought I'd just incorporate some stars and red, white, blue and be done. Then, I realized the point wasn't just to remake the flag, but I could give it more meaning. I decided to draw a crying baby, but it was actually pretty hard to draw the features of a baby so it looks more like a toddler. I made his body in the shape of one of those people shaped shooting targets and added some small numbers around the border. I wanted to do a meaningful number, but couldn't figure out which to do. I decided to paint with red and blue acrylic and traced the stars and the shape of the boy with two different sized thin markers. I decided to go this way with this project because I wanted to do something meaningful and I think, especially recently, gun violence has shaped how we and the rest of the world sees the United States. So I wanted to integrate it into the flag to show a message. I wanted to give a face to gun violence and maybe evoke sadness or guilt. I actually liked my finished painting and this project because everyone had to incorporate the same elements, but it's fun to see the different paths people took it.