ARTIST STATEMENT

C is the Children, our hope for the future. Parents want a safe life for their children and, when their homes become a danger, they look for a better life. They seek a place for protection, work, and shelter. For some that hope of a better place lies within the borders of the United States. They travel thousands of miles, with nothing more than what they can carry, to reach our borders, and then hope for entrance. 

 

The bottom layer of silk organza in my piece is a thermofax print of the statue from the Immigration and Naturalization Act pertaining to asylum and children. The print is muddled, mostly illegible, as they would appear to a child. The only things a child can understand are love and comfort. Fancy words mean nothing unless they can provide this comfort. 

 

The next layer of silk organza is made up of individually carved and stamped children’s faces. Each face is a small representation of the children who were brought to the United States in the hopes of refuge. Many of these children were separated from their parents and housed in chain link fence cages in 2018, which accounts for the next layer of stamped chain link, followed by quilting to mimic the chain link. The final layer is a drawing of a single child, crying for their parents. This one child’s discomfort represents the pain I imagine each child feels as they were taken from their parents. 

 

While the policy of separating children from their parents was changed in June of 2018, there are still children who have not been reunited. It breaks my heart to think of the damage we have caused to these children.