In the carefully crafted piece, “Mend” by Nathaniel Mary Quinn, he uses different mediums such as charcoal, pastels, and oil paints to cover the face of a human. He still uses the main parts of the face with the nose, mouth, and pair of eyes. At first glance, confusion will strike the viewer due to the collaged facial features creating a blank expression. Despite the confusion…
What makes Quinn’s piece intriguing?
After pondering at the piece for a few moments, I realized that Quinn’s artstyle is similar to Pablo Picasso’s surrealism. The out of the ordinary artistic choices lead to more than what meets the eye.
Quinn collages the facial features to represent the prejudice the people of color community has faced for decades. Recent events, such as the Black Lives Matter protests, led to the downfall of humanity. Many people cannot look past a person’s skin color, creating a diversion between the Whites and Colored. Looking at Quinn’s creation, he believes that humanity can work together and “mend” the damage that has been done to the minorities.
Many artists’ work reflect their emotions and personal experiences with the subject they’re painting. Quinn or people in his inner circle must have faced racism at some point of his life. His work must be his cry for help to humanity that the only way to piece together our crumbling society is to discuss the cause and effect of the humans’ hate crimes to society.
Other artists, such as Sapna, can also shed light on other minority groups’ events of the Asian Lives Matter protests. She spreads the awareness of not only the black lives being threatened, but also Asians. She creates a digital piece to show that Asians and Black people can walk hand in hand to fight racism.
Growing up as a Filipina, I didn’t see many people on television shows with tan skin and thick hair. I felt left out and couldn’t identify myself with the characters as I saw. Like Quinn and Sapna, I began to create pieces of artwork that showed human diversity, representing people with melanin-rich skin.
One day, I will be part of a generation that will create characters where children of color can identify with.
