Artist Statement
Lisa Wu
Social Justice Posters
Unity is important for a better world. The overall message that I am hoping to convey is the idea of unity and how unity, acceptance and coming together paves a path for a better world and future. I created the vision of many hands touching the Earth to create the sense of connection and unity. We are all connected by the world we live in. Through this, I also wanted to show the diversity of how many different people and cultures are present around the world and how if we all unite, accept each other and work together, a better world is in fact a possible vision. I used the color blue to create a hopeful feeling and really emphasize the beauty of unity.
My decision to use a simple font helps to bring out the images in the poster more, and maintaining the color scheme of the Earth and blue shades really allows for the poster to look consistent. I am passionate about unity and acceptance because it gives us courage, power and strength to stand up for something and to work towards a better world. Unity also represents so many other things from help and support to having the courage to face the world together. I hope that my poster can inspire my viewers and provide them with the sense of hope that one day the world will be better, that even if things are difficult now, a better world is always possible if we unite, work together and accept each other. I want to show my viewers that unity gives us power and the courage to face the world together even in the toughest times and support each other so we can move towards a better future.
By providing a way for us to take action to create a positive impact on the environment, I hope that more people will see that there are many simple and easy ways we can take action to start caring for our environment, before we “cease to breathe.” One simple way that we can make our world greener and cleaner is to plant a tree, either physically or by using ecosia.org, a search engine which donates its profits to planting trees. I included two hands on both sides of the call to action at the bottom of the poster. One hand is partially green with a sprouting tree in her fingers to show growing a tree by hand while the other side shows a person holding a phone and on the phone with a tree growing on the screen to show how easy it is to use the Ecosia search engine to simply and conveniently help donate to planting trees. This digital solution is relevant to today’s world where going outside may not be an option.
In my poster the main subject is a girl staring at the viewer and covering her mouth. I used this image to emphasize the urgency of the problem that air pollution is affecting the world. Her strong gaze really catches the viewer’s attention and instills the idea that she is watching and waiting for us to take action. I added a collage of photos in the background to show the stark difference between the beautiful green trees and flowers and the dark and massive amount of pollution and waste released into the environment. Having the beauty of nature on the left and then the grim reality of pollution on the right makes it seem as if there are two paths we can go down.
We may not be able to instantaneously reverse all the damage we have done or to save the world in a day, but through small actions and starting today by planting trees, we can all take care of our environment and make a cleaner, greener and brighter future for everyone.
Inclusive Stock Photography
The Inclusive Stock Photography project was designed to address the scarcity of people of color, multicultural people, and LGBTQ+ people in commercial stock photography by creating professional-quality images of these underrepresented people in a variety of everyday settings, including romantic and platonic relationships, family, and communities.