Artist Statement

Wrongly Accused

Haley Watkins

My art piece is a 12x14 canvas done with acrylic paint. I used paint brushes for most of the artwork except for the fingerprints. I used my finger and then made fingerprint designs with a marker. My art piece is about the right we are all innocent until proven guilty. I made my painting with varieties of blues, purples, and some red to create a dramatic effect on the painting. I then added black bars to show a jail cell with fingerprints to represent the prisoners that were/are locked up for crimes that they possibly didn't commit. The fingerprints are meant to represent you and your identity.

I did this artwork piece to share awareness of the right of the innocent until proven guilty. I tried to show a person in jail and show that they don't want to be in there because it was for something they didn't do. They lost years of their life for something they didn't do because 5% of people go to jail for something they didn't do. Before the right of innocent until proven guilty, 500,000 people every day went to jail worldwide for things they didn't do. That is why I made the background pop, as the jail cell is dark. 

By making this art piece, I wanted to show people about my right of innocence until proven guilty because, without it, people could be in jail their whole life for something they didn't do. I kept this in mind to fully convey how these people felt. I hope the message in my art gets around and people feel how I felt making this art piece.