Reach Out to Our Voices

-by Odaliz and Alejandra

This piece of art expresses the need to make known the voices of the children that have been abused and to expose the damage that child abuse has inflicted upon these innocent victims. This piece is unique because we are focusing on calling attention to the struggle that children go through. Both artists have been motivated to create art due to the inspiration that they found from the strength of these children. It is important to realize that by raising awareness on the atrocities occurring behind closed doors, these children can be saved from traumatizing events. The emotions that we are trying to convey are not only sympathy towards these children, but also empathy.

This art means a great deal to both artists because they are able to bring out the voices of these children and emphasize that the rights of these children are being violated. The artists draw inspiration from the potential of these children. All of these children have not only managed to survive the most brutal and inhumane conditions, but also, many advocate for the rights of children and strive to break this monstrous cycle.

In the process of making this poster, many factors influenced the artists. Some of these factors include the color blue (which is the official color of Child Abuse Prevention Month), the book “A Child Called ‘It’”, and our knowledge that many children have been deprived of their basic rights. These influences have made a massive impression on both artists since they have guided the design of the poster.

It is important that the viewers understand the importance of the voices and experiences of these children since that is a fundamental piece of the poster.  The viewers should understand that these children have had many of their rights violated. Viewers should also take away that there is hope in ending these cruelties and that with the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the U.S., these atrocities can be ended. 

Child labor is wrong!

There are many types of child labor. We are trying to inform people of the facts about child labor. We need to persuade everyone to stop this because children have rights that need to be expressed and followed. Our influence and motivation was taking the children’s rights class. This class has opened our eyes to some of the problems that are going on in the world, and how bad some children are being treated. While the topics covered in the poster are not the only forms of child labor, we chose to display the most prominent forms, such as child slavery, factory work, farming, mining, soldiering, trafficking, and indentured servitude.  We want all children to have an education, not be abused, to live in a safe environment,and play when they want to. Children deserve to have respect and love.

The tools we used were Adobe Illustrator and Google for our poster. We enjoyed working on this project because it means something and it is an important subject. It should be talked about because people should learn how to prevent it from happening. We need to save children from going through these types of situations. We are very passionate about this because we were children and could have went through the same thing. Now we are teenagers and can make a difference in the world by informing people of the dangers of child labor.

Artists Statement

Robert F. Williams and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had different views on the use of self-defense and non-violence. Robert F. Williams believed that self-defense was necessary in order to protect family, loved ones, and the community from harm and unjust treatment by the Ku Klux Klan, and other uncivilized groups of society. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. thought that non-violent protest was the only way to deal with violence enacted on them by these groups.

This poster shows an argument between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Williams on the use of non-violence and self-defense. It uses several pictures to add to the meaning of what these two figureheads have said. Some of the pictures add comedic relief, while the coloration and designs’ make the poster unique in the sense that it catches the viewer’s eye, and is most definitely different than any other seen here today.

Our poster examines Martin Luther King Jr.’s advocacy of the nonviolent method to achieve civil rights. King’s philosophy is complex, and goes beyond “don’t fight back”; it had to do with creating a friendship with an old enemy. King believed building this friendship would be more effective than defeating the oppressor, as he thought that using violence would lead to bitterness, not brotherhood. King was convinced that only when a brotherhood was established would true peace be a reality. King stated that “True peace…is the presence of some positive force-justice, goodwill and brotherhood”. True peace cannot be achieved through violence, because fighting with physical force creates a loser, not an understanding between different people. King preached the nonviolent method to all who would listen, and he admired others, like students, who protested nonviolently. Actions speak louder that words, and King’s tactics expressed a desire for understanding and a desire for friendship.

The quotes and pictures we chose to include in our poster highlight the key points of King’s philosophy. The pictures of protesters represent his methods of nonviolent protests, and they depict the diversity and quantity of the people that worked with him and worked to achieve equality using his methods. The pictures also represent those that he did not work with but admired because of their use of nonviolence. The quotes we used express his ideas about why nonviolence was necessary and why nonviolence is a good tactic. Dr. King believed that nonviolence was the only way to achieve the true peace mentioned above, as it did not punish or hurt the oppressive whites. King’s ideas about nonviolent protest were deeply complex and were designed to achieve goals the of true peace, brotherhood, and friendship.

For our poster “The Danger of Children Bearing Small Arms” we’ve created a collage of manila folders to portray different headlines relating to the effects of giving guns to kids.  The headlines can vary from the danger of children bearing the weapons, the basic statistics, the solutions to ending the unethical labor, and the worst-case scenarios. Our art piece expresses the wrong-doing of forcing children to bear weapons. We are trying to convey knowledge to people on what goes on in some countries which have no children rights. These children are exposed to the most unfair treatment and do not deserve the high risk of abuse and death at such a young age.

We chose this topic because this is an age where technology and weapons are advancing to the point where it becomes easier to kill. Thus, children become more at risk of dying and getting horribly injured so the time for action would be now.

The purpose for the use of the manila folders is to illustrate the action of giving information. When I eagerly turn on my television, I switch on the news, and all we hear about is the bull crap that is fed to us, which are things that the media and government believe we should know. Much of the real news stories are buried under nonsense. But when I learned of the mistreatment of children in African countries, I become concerned. So my colleague and I have decided to create a poster attempting to spread the concern about the children being forced into violence.

The main goal Aida and I are trying to achieve with this poster is essentially to increase awareness on the very important issue of gender discrimination against girls in various countries worldwide, especially in the field of education. Many poor families feel as though it is wasteful for girls to go to school, since all they’re good for is domestic chores, and duties. Girls have no opportunities to strive for a better future. 

Our art is unique. Two-thirds of the worlds 880 million illiterate adults are women. So my partner and I agreed it would be best if we represented all the women that are robbed of an equal chance to go to school, as their brothers, cousins and etc. get to. Our main work of art has the exact number of how many, out of the total population of illiterate adults, are women. They are represented around the globe together holding hands united.

Another thing that makes our artwork special is that we used all of the graphic design requirements of contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. Alignment is used through the centering of our fact inside the picture of the globe. We used contrast by creating an orange background that we’ve also faded from dark to light. In conclusion, the goal of our poster is to potentially raise awareness to the issue of inequality in female education. 

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. used emotion throughout his life. King’s words displayed his sense of intellectuality and genuine character, by promoting nonviolence and racial integration. This urgency caused him to create speeches that changed the lives of many. This change of character caused Black Americans to gain a sense of dignity and self-determination for justice and their human rights. We must not forget how far we have come, but the race has not finished. The hurdles of racism, discrimination, bias, and prejudice have provoked injustice towards the black community. As a black community we must not have a crab mentality,which is to say, we must not represent a pot of crabs because individually we could escape but we grab onto one another in our competitiveness to succeed, because this competition will surely end in our demise. We chose these quotes to represent this struggle. The picture we chose also demonstrates this presence. Finally, we used white words on black background to make them contrast better against the subtlety of the black and white portrait.

Artist’s Statement

            I believe in the importance of giving the work of art a hidden meaning and conveying emotions into the piece. My taste in art is influenced by antique paintings I have seen in various art museums. I am inspired by these paintings since there is always a story or a message behind them that make them interesting.

When my partner and I began to work on the MLK poster, we planned to add in numerous metaphorical components in the piece. For instance, we highlighted King’s words in bright yellow, while keeping the background relatively lighter.  This expresses the idea that words are powerful and are also more meaningful and effective than the use of violence. It also tells the viewer that King’s compelling words are what inspired the people to stand up for justice.  Therefore, we have added quotes to the left of the poster to add further strength to that statement.

Additionally, we have chosen this particular picture for our poster to show the love and support King receives from the people, and his ability to control such an enormous crowd just through his words. An interesting fact that should be taken into account is that he is not surrounded by an armed force for protection in the picture like most political leaders are. We believe that this is an attempt by him to set an example to the crowd about the power and effectiveness of nonviolence in bringing about change. His smile and wave to the people in the crowd represents their connection through love, which goes with the principle of nonviolence.