Graffiti Wall Artist Statement

The topics of War and Peace are never easy to talk about, but the images that first come to my mind when I hear those words are destruction, children, and suffering. I think of blood and children being torn apart from their families and being forced to do heinous acts and crimes. I think of innocence being robbed away and what was once pure now being stained with darkness. This topic brings up many mixed emotions especially anger. Partially because its hard for me to be able to wrap my mind around how humans can be capable of such things. I don’t understand how there are people and even nations out there that can exploit children not just physically but psychologically and not feel compassion. These people have become so desensitized to these kinds of things that it is as if they had no heart. 

When I think of War I don’t just think about soldiers and armies fighting against one another. I think about war in terms of conflict or struggle. Such things for me would be immigration, human trafficking, gang violence, drug wars, and poverty. My graffiti wall isn’t something necessarily cohesive it’s more of a splatter of issues, feelings, and a combination of the themes we have touched in class. I have included pictures that illustrate reasons for war, pictures that show who it affects—deaths, families, children, pictures that show destruction, and the need for peace. I drew a picture that spoke out to me, it’s a young boy around the age of nine or ten and he has a shirt on that says “Don’t Deport My Mom.” I drew it because I can relate to it, but instead with my husband. I consider this war because it’s a conflict and many people are suffering because of this. It’s an issue between the United States and other countries, whether or not to let people in and there is tension on both sides. But we forget that this isn’t just a political issue, it’s affecting families and children are being left in foster care.

 I also drew a picture of cage with commodities inside that represents our world and those that are privileged and how we are sheltered from the rest of the world not only because we don’t hear about it, but because we tend to think that war happens to the rest of the world and not to us. If you take time to analyze, many wars today can all be traced back to poverty and the need to survive. People are sometimes seen obligated to sell drugs, their children, and even cross borders “people who don’t have much get ugly about giving up the little they have left”—Andrew Vachss.

There are quotes that sum up my view on war and that describe some of my pictures. The first one is “As long as there is profit in war the world will never know peace”—Guy Fawkes Mask. This quote is perfect for the types of wars we have today. Many of the conflicts that exist today have to with money, profit, and power. It’s the drug wars, human trafficking, politics, resources and so much more. Many wars are no longer for rights or freedom and a lot of money made is on the cost of others and its dirty. This ties in perfectly with another quote I included, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone; it is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists and the hopes of its children”—Dwight D. Eisenhower.   

 To conclude my graffiti wall I have quote from Mother Theresa that really says what I feel about where war has led us and why we even start them. “If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other” in the end we are all human and we should be there to support each other and share this world. But unfortunately because we are human we make mistakes and sometimes are acts are driven by ambition and the need for power. So to make a difference we would have to start with ourselves and reeducating our children.