The Meaning Behind "Save"

This was a collage project. The precursor to the assembly of this composition involved laborious work flipping through dozens of magazines and meticulously cutting images that I thought would look interesting.

The reason why this project was made especially difficult was because I had no vision for the collage prior to the last few days I was working on it. I couldn't settle on an idea because I didn't know if I would be able to find the appropriate images in the magazines I had access to.

After days of cutting images of various colors, textures, and details, I had a collection of images to sort through and think about how they would go together.

I thought of this idea after seeing a lot of blue and red images, coming up with a concept of opposing forces. The bottom of this collage represents the underprivileged population, or those who are often looked down upon in society. There is also a hand that is lighting the bottom of the planet on fire, which raises some important questions: will we be able to control the spread, do we see the damage that is being ensued, and do we care enough to take action? The top of the collage represents those who are affluent and otherwise well-settled; those who have access to a plethora of opportunities, wealth and technology.

For the center of the collage, I created Earth with a cut out of numerous data figures. The finger in the blue is pushing the baby down, towards the poor, while the impoverished are trying to give the child a better opportunity. A bloody, wounded hand is trying to save the planet from crashing down, but there is nobody else to help them.

The end of this composition was looking a bit busy, so I tried to emphasize a few aspects using acrylic paint.