Banner Art detail: Kenjaya Drayton, Westwood High School Ceramics, 2018
Artist Statement
Gun violence
There is a lot of meaning and feeling behind those two words. Gun violence hurts everyone in some way. It has recently struck me; badly. I had to remind myself daily after this tragedy, with a saying, and that saying is “you will not fall”. Continuously telling myself this to get through so many days after the loss of a close one helped me and inspired me to continue being great.
I had taken all of my feelings and thoughts about what had happened and used them in my ceramic piece. This piece was done while thinking about Aice Jackman -- someone who meant the world to me --.
He was also someone who was a victim to gun violence.
This piece expresses pain with the colors I’ve chosen. It also shows heartbreak. Most importantly, it includes my favorite saying ‘you will not fall’ in multiple different languages. The different languages used in my piece are meant for any and everyone dealing with a situation like mine -- while also emphasizing the phrase and making it sound as powerful as it looks in different languages.
In the four years of being in ceramics, I've never had any of my pieces break. When this piece broke it was a sign telling me that this was very strong and symbolic.