Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting
For my art piece I chose to make a drawing/painting on a canvas that conveyed both the dreams elementary school children have and the sorrow of never being able to attempt to achieve those dreams. I chose to write the phrase “when I grow up” along with stick figures of children in adult professions that children often want to be when they grow up, such as astronauts, baseball players, doctors, and, ballerinas. I chose to melt red crayon all over the canvas to convey the bloodshed that be felled Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 12, 2012.
It was really difficult me after I melted the crayon all over the canvas. I felt extremely vulnerable. I felt like I was able to get a bit closer to how it must have felt to lose a child that had not even had the chance to really begin their life yet. I had very mixed emotions about the art project once I was finished. After watching many video clips of grieving parents, scared children, and confused members of the Newtown community my art project really had meaning for me. I found it difficult to detach. I felt like I really conveyed what I wanted to artistically, which made me happy, but I felt overwhelming sadness about creating it. In a way I felt guilty about what I had created.
