This poster is my interpretation of Tupac’s poem, “The Power of a Smile.”
The power of a gun can kill
And the power of fire can burn
The power of wind can chill
And the power of the mind can learn
The power of anger can rage inside
Until it tears you apart
But the power of a smile,
Especially yours, can heal a frozen Heart
In my drawing I have used both my own photographs and photos I found online to form a black and white collage that symbolized the ‘realistic’ part of the drawing. Then I drew a little girl and her ‘cartoon world’ that she conjures up. This contrast is to show a darkness in the real world with protests going on because of the ever present inequality in our culture. This little girl is using her imagination to conjure up her fantasy world where there is more love than hate, and is generally happy and joyful.
There are many ways one can see this drawing. It can either be a bad thing to the viewer that the fantasy world is ignoring the present problems, and is being used as a sort of escape, or the viewer might see what this little girl is doing as a good thing–using her ‘smile’ and imagination to remain positive in a ‘darker’ time.
*This is an alteration where I’ve edited the small graphic faults and replaced the rainbow with a few hearts.
