This was the first time I ever really tried to convey a meaning with my work. Before this point, I was a Freshman in High School, simply trying to hone my technical skills without much thought to meaning or concepts. It feels somewhat strange to be writing about this piece almost two years later, but I reread my artist statement from this project and was moderately to severely mortified. I was attempting to comment on the state of military affairs in America today. Soldiers are sacrificing their lives and comfort everyday in order to protect all of our lives, yet pop culture stories get insanely more air time that the deaths of these brave men and women overseas. Americans attempt to turn a blind eye to all the loss that is occurring overseas, and I wanted to convey this uncomfortable fact through this piece. I wish that people would stop censoring themselves. Stop listening selectively. Stop mourning only a fraction of the population. Mourn all of it. Especially those men and women who knew the risk. Who knew the possibility of their demise and continued on regardless, because they truly grasped the importance of their job. That is the ultimate message here and it is something near and dear to my heart.
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