The issue that I chose to portray in my artwork was violence against women. My piece is titled "One in Three" because one in three women in the United States have been victims of rape, beating, and/or stalking. Women are assaulted at a much higher rate than men, and while the assault of men is just as important to address, violence towards women happens much more frequently across our country and across the world. I selected this issue because many people in our country, men and women, believe that women have full equality and respect, so they don't have to be feminists. However, with such a high percentage of women in the United States, statistics show that we aren't even close to having equality in this country. I wanted to convey with this piece that we have a long, uphill battle to fight before we eliminate violence against women, but we have to fight it because women are people too.
The first thing I did to plan was research my issue to find the statistics of violence against women. Three sources that helped me plan my piece were http://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/health/nearly-1-in-5-women-in-us-survey-report-sexual-assault.html?referrer=&_r=0,https://www.rainn.org/statistics,http://www.woar.org/resources/sexual-assault-statistics.php. I wrote down a question in my notebook and answers that I tried to base my artwork off of.
Another thing I did to plan was brainstorm with a mind map.
The last thing I did to plan was look up reference images.
In my artwork, I only used graphite pencils for the women, so that each of them would be just as noticeable. I wanted each of the women to seem like normal women, who you wouldn't expect to be victims of violence. When I finished with the graphite, I realized that the woman on the left was less noticeable because she had less contrast in her face. I decided to draw more attention to her by using a gradient in the background that matched the colors of the bruises on the last woman's face. This made it so that when you first look at the picture, you don't notice the bruises, but when you see them, you have a reaction to the awful statistic that one in three women faces violence. I think the work that I produced was effective because it helps to show that no matter what you say, the percentage of women who face violence in our country is too high.