Artist Statement
Where’s My Book and Alone Star State
For these two series of illustrations, I explore the idea of women’s rights in Afghanistan and the United States. Although they initially appear like polar opposites, they might have more in common than you think. The first series is about girls’ educational rights in Afghanistan after the takeover of the country by the Taliban. The desperation and hopelessness I felt while reading recent news about Afghanistan led me to choose this topic and create this series of conceptual illustrations. Titled, Where’s My Book, the magazine cover depicts a girl trapped in a burqa-like prison trying to catch a book that is flying away. For this illustration, I used visual rhetorics like replacement and scale to construct my message. As for the work process, I started sketching the concept on paper, applied gouache afterward, and eventually finished up the details in Photoshop.
In the second series of work, Alone Star State, I respond to the recent abortion ban in Texas. Here I express my concern regarding the harm the anti-abortion law has brought to sexual assault survivors. I used symbolic and metaphorical approaches in this series. With a limited color palette and a combination of different brushstrokes, I tried to build a strong contrast between peace and chaos to get my ideas across. The illustrations were done with acrylic on wood.
Through these two series of conceptual illustrations, I am hoping to raise awareness of women’s rights, especially for vulnerable young girls, across the world. A threat to women’s rights in one country is a threat to women’s rights in all countries.