Artist Statement

Or So They Say

Ariel Duval

My piece contains an angry face with half an angel's halo and half a devil's horn. The other side has an angry mouth and evil eyes. I painted this on a 6 x 6-inch canvas. I used paint for the face and a Sharpie for the words around the border. The border says, "You're innocent until proven guilty until proven innocent." It says this repeatedly around the border.

I became interested in this art project because I used to want to be an attorney. After I watched this movie, titled Gifted, about a girl's guardians fighting over her custody, this topic caught my eye. Through my research, I found out about some people who have been wrongfully convicted. One man, Alexander Janse, went to jail for 43 years, but it turns out he was innocent! The justice department paid him for their mistakes, and he wound up getting a lot of money. Frederick Clay spent 38 years behind bars being wrongly convicted, and when he got out, he was paid over a million dollars, but it did take lots of fighting for him to get to this point. Only 38 states pay you for the inconvenience of being wrongfully convicted. Interestingly, 44 people in the United States pleaded guilty to crimes they did not commit. 

In this project, I aim to educate people on the right, "you're always innocent until proven guilty," because they may not be aware of their rights. I named my piece, "Or So They Say" because you never know if someone is lying or not, so they could be telling the truth or lying. Or so they say they're innocent but really guilty, or so they say they're guilty but really innocent.