Week 6 Collage

 Enough is Enough Collage

    I decided to do my collage as a political point of view on how I feel about mass shooting in the United States. For my art collage this week I wanted to portrait a personal feeling on what is going on in our world. As a criminal justice major, you noticed that most of the crime, especially school shootings are part of a mental health disorder they had. As a college student, I do doubt a school shooting will happen where I am at, but the real concert is not I should not doubt it, but is the support my current school and previous school offer for mental health. Mental health is a current health crisis that everyone should worry about, but most people , even the government, do not pay attention to it. Although, there is a mental health crisis we should know, there should be way more restrictions on purchasing a gun and should be regularly checked and background checked to maintain keeping a gun. Parents should not be worrying about whether their childrens will be safe everyday going to school, just to get an education. The background of my collage is spray painted in red on a canva. You think of red, you can think of dark or blood. I decided to print out the people who lost their lives in a school shooting. Then, I had cut out words from a newspaper where it mentioned about a shooting that had happened in Jersey City. 

    There was another article that talked about the statistics of a mass shooting. I had pamphlets about mental health and decided to cut out what we need more in every school throughout the United States. There was an advertisement about a daycare for children near my area. I decided to include them smiling, because these kids deserve to be happy and not witness something that can traumatize them. The most surprising thing I saw in a newspaper was a gun image and it talked about a shooting range. I decided to include myself in it with my hand printed over my eyes to represent how we witness these young children dying, but also we witness these children also killing. The hand represents the children's prints and how we may see them as innocent in all these violence. I had also included an actual empty bullet I had when I went shooting at the range. I decided to include this into my art as I noticed as my first time going to a shooting range they make you fill out a waiver asking if you're mentally ill, which you can easily lie and say no. When you go in you see all these guns displayed, but not safely displayed behind a glass. There was little security, but it was packed. The most shocking thing is that I saw childrens as young as 6 years old, learning how to shoot. Noticing that the guns were super cheap to purchase and they had exclusive deals on them. With this in mind I noticed people can easily get access to a handgun, but not consider their mental statics. As my boyfriend goes to these shooting ranges, they have expressed a story on how they will go and they are not allowed in because someone shot themselves as suicidal. So, I had this quote on the wall, where it said, “In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take.” I decided to included this quote in my project, because there is a cycle happening with these shootings, yes the news and politicians talked about it and how we need a change, but there never any changes made that the public heard and can see a difference, then another shooting happens and we regret that there is no change happening. As of mid-February the Gun Violence Archive has counted 80 mass shootings in the United States this year and is only February. Lastly it made me bring an empty white polaroid film I had, where it shows that these people who lost their lives in a shooting have no more memories to create and the people who lost those in a shooting have no memories with them. Enough is Enough, we need change and consider every factor in this world, start to keep our new generation and old generation safe from gun violence.

    My art was inspired by Danielle Scott artwork, but it was also inspired by Cindy Sherman and Hannah Hoch. Ever since I learned about Danielle Scott artwork and her inspiration behind her artwork. Cindy Sherman gave me the inspiration on how we can change our appearances. Hannah Hoch gave me the whole inspiration of my collage with her idea of photomontage. 

Enough is Enough by Dattnan Martinez

Indian Dancer, 1930 by Hannah Hoch

Queen of Angels, 2020 by Danielle Scott