| Winner of the Artistic Category "Mercedes, Your Dress is Too Loud" By Shannon Chong - FL |
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| 2010 KarMel Scholarship Submission |
| KarMel Scholarship 2010 |
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| Description of Submission: "Something personal happened today, that has to do with my project, so I just wanted to state this: My name is Shannon and I am a lesbian. I've been out ever since I was 14 years old (except to my family), and I've been with my girlfriend, April, for two years now. We're in love and we're what each other lives off of; we're each other's backbones and best friends. We can't wait till the day we can get married and live together. Two years ago, my mom tried to keep April and I apart by forbidding us to see each other. This morning, my dad said he would threaten me and my girlfriend, if he found out we were in a relationship. Now I'm not sure what to do with my life, and it makes me really really sad.. because all I want from life, is to just be with my girlfriend. Ever since I started dating, I've become heavily interested in equality rights and politics, since it specifically has to do a lot with my current and future life. Over time, I've come across a lot of people who claim that same-sex relationships are "okay," however, they don't believe that same-sex couples should have the right to wed. Whether they are super religious or not, they claim that if basically all people were to wed, it would lead to the earth's destruction, because the institution of marriage would be tarnished. However, this makes no sense at all, because the institution of marriage is pretty much already ruined, by a high divorce rate. In my drawing, a lesbian couple sits at a reception table at their friend's wedding, obviously bored, tired and excluded from the rest of the women. Their inclusion into the wedding, but exclusion from the wedding activities, show how people "accept" homosexuality, but still end up discriminating against LBGT people by disallowing them to wed. The newly wedded bride is in the action of tossing her bouquet to her straight girlfriends, stating that basically whoever can catch this is the next to get married and live a happy life like her. The women in the crowd vary in differences, including age -- even a baby and two small girls are hopefully trying to cactch the flowers. This represents the fact that no matter who you are, you can get married.. but as long as you're straight. The statement at the bottom of the drawing counteracts the wedding activity, by making the women's fun look frivolous, because according to statistics, their marriages aren't going to end up happily ever after like they think. I chose to use a black and white palette, because I feel that the topic of marriage is seen as black and white. It's not really seen as something very important in government -- it's like one of those extra things journalists asked McCain and Obama during pre-elections. People are either for it or against it, and then it's on to the next topic. There's no grey area for those who use religion as an argument against same-sex marriage--anything gay is just always going to be bad in their eyes. I made the ground/grass black as if it were soiled, reeks havoc. So, since the lesbian couple is touching the ground, the ground is black, and the sky is white, or, pure because they can't literally or figuratively touch the sky (figuratively, meaing that gay people "can't go to heaven.") A path of white (or, a white carpet) leads up to the bride, signifying that heterosexual marriage is the hope of a dirty world infested by homosexuals. Patterns are assigned to every woman and their surrounding area depending on their sexuality. Triangles for the gay women, and flowers and hearts for the straight women. Triangles are symbolic of gay people (as in when during the Holocaust, pink triangles were assigned to gay people), and also of gay pride. Flowers and hearts make up the straight women, because flowers are organic-- they represent grrowth and something natural, as opposed to triangles, which are geometric and don't occur naturally. Hearts are also given to these specific women, because true love is conventionally and religously thought of as something between opposite sex partners. I placed the shapes on the women's clothes, surrounding areas and on their bodies (if you notice, the shadows in everyone's ears are their assigned shape.) I did this because I feel that when certain people learn of someone's sexuality and it's "different," they can't get past it. To them, it's like they put stickers on everybody and the person's belogings, so they don't forget how to judge the person. The border on my drawing is supposed to be a rope, with knots at the corner. This is, of course, displaying the wedding phrase, "tide the knot". " - Shannon Biography: Shannon was attending Ringling College of Art and Design, but will be transfering to Broward Community Colege to study Art. In her spare time, she likes to work out and draw. Last year (2009), Shannon also submitted to the KarMel Scholarship and won Honorable Mention: Best Gay Marriage. "Today, Another Day" Why Karen and Melody Liked It: We loved the detail & symbols that Shannon put into her drawing. We appreciated the detailed description given to us to explain the intricacies of the drawing. She defintely put a lot of thought into the drawing. We also liked seeing in the drawing that even a baby was able to catch the bouquet to get married. It was truly a great way to depict the issues of gay marriage. |
| Did you like this ? Then feel free to send a message to Shannon at: shann.chong@gmail.com |
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| Do you like this? Then feel free to send an email message to Shannon at shann.chong@gmail.com |