Artist statement
For my project, I decided to learn more about deporting illegal immigrants. Doing so, I came across the Dream Act. The Dream Act allows youth who entered America illegally as children be able to apply for citizenship without being deported. Due to personal experience as well as studies I found while researching, my perspective about the Dream Act is that other than the superficial, economic benefits of passing the Dream Act, it is morally right to pass the Dream Act.
In order to relay my message visually, I decided to incorporate pathos and ethos. I used pathos by drawing a young, Hispanic woman gazing longingly at the American Flag. She has tears streaming down her face and the flagpole is wrapped in barbed wire. The barbed wire signifies the ideals of America are not accessible to her (illegal immigrants in general). In my poster, I used ethos by incorporating a quote from Obama. The quote is, “They’re Americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one — on paper.” I believe this quote reaches out to people on an emotional and realistic level. It makes them realize illegal immigrants are every bit as American as legal citizens, however, only a mere piece of paper determines the liberties of illegal immigrants.
The tone of my poster is sympathetic. I tried to pull at people’s heartstrings by showing emotion in the young woman’s face. My goal is to persuade people by using pathos that passing the Dream Act will create happiness and opportunities for illegal immigrants.
I used shading to emphasize important parts of my poster such as certain words in the quote I used by Obama. Also, in order for the audience to know the young woman was from Mexico, I made the “Mexico” soccer patch on her shirt stand out. I decided to keep my drawing gray scale because I feel like colors make anything seem happy. Therefore, the gray coloring keeps the mood somewhat sad.
I refined my poster by asking my peers what they thought my message was. I asked those who were not clear about my message to give me feedback on how I could make my poster more clear. I like to get peer feed back because I know the picture in my head may not be as clear to them as it is to me. Overall, I am pretty proud of my poster, sure I would like some things to be better such as my barbwire, however, I really like how my picture turned out and I feel like my message is getting across.
In order to relay my message visually, I decided to incorporate pathos and ethos. I used pathos by drawing a young, Hispanic woman gazing longingly at the American Flag. She has tears streaming down her face and the flagpole is wrapped in barbed wire. The barbed wire signifies the ideals of America are not accessible to her (illegal immigrants in general). In my poster, I used ethos by incorporating a quote from Obama. The quote is, “They’re Americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one — on paper.” I believe this quote reaches out to people on an emotional and realistic level. It makes them realize illegal immigrants are every bit as American as legal citizens, however, only a mere piece of paper determines the liberties of illegal immigrants.
The tone of my poster is sympathetic. I tried to pull at people’s heartstrings by showing emotion in the young woman’s face. My goal is to persuade people by using pathos that passing the Dream Act will create happiness and opportunities for illegal immigrants.
I used shading to emphasize important parts of my poster such as certain words in the quote I used by Obama. Also, in order for the audience to know the young woman was from Mexico, I made the “Mexico” soccer patch on her shirt stand out. I decided to keep my drawing gray scale because I feel like colors make anything seem happy. Therefore, the gray coloring keeps the mood somewhat sad.
I refined my poster by asking my peers what they thought my message was. I asked those who were not clear about my message to give me feedback on how I could make my poster more clear. I like to get peer feed back because I know the picture in my head may not be as clear to them as it is to me. Overall, I am pretty proud of my poster, sure I would like some things to be better such as my barbwire, however, I really like how my picture turned out and I feel like my message is getting across.