ORIGINAL IDEA
AVA
“We are the generation that must throw everything into the endeavor to remake America into what we say we want it to be. Without this endeavor, we will perish. However immoral or subversive this may sound to some, it is the writer who must always remember that mortality, if it is to remain or become morality, must be perpetually examined, cracked, changed, made new. He must remember, however powerful the many who would rather forget, that life is the only touchstone and that life is dangerous, and that without the joyful acceptance of this danger, there can never be any safety for anyone, ever, anywhere….Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
Baldwin’s use of inclusion in the word, “we”, holds a lot of power for the viewer. The first two sentences of the quote heavily inspired my final drawing of AVA, Baldwin discusses the impact of the potential our realization to change can have on the future, as an influencer of a five year old, I find a heavy responsibility in being older, my life decisions are absorbed by her. I placed Ava’s face in the borderland, El Paso, between America and Mexico, to depict this middle ground of identity. My decision to use greyscale color scheme added to the meaning of the contrasts of the past and future of the potentials.
SHIFT:
At the beginning of the brainstorming session, I originally wanted to create a collage, painting piece that depicted “progressive propaganda”, a more generalized piece that spoke directly to the progression of racial and gender equality. As I analyzed the quote more in depth, I thought about the future and immediately connected it to my little sister, my half sister, Ava, a half bred Mexican American. During my junior high school career, I lived in El Paso, Texas, my stepfather was a US border patrol agent and I found myself question my pride and identification as a Mexican American female. With all of these personal experiences, I created a drawing with pen and pencil to connect the quote with my personal motivation to push for change, my sister, Ava.
