Give In Or Rise Up? — Angela Mascolino, Watercolorist

Here's something I've been working on in response to all that is happening:

The two art pieces feature the same watercolor painting photographed with real spring flowers and a leaf. Both were inspired by artist/photographer Gordon Parks. One composition features a single leaf "flying" over the destroyed landscape symbolizing the carrying away of our individual as well as our collective livelihoods and liberties. - Like a thief in the night. The other composition features the same dark landscape with fleeting flowers rising up from the ashes. I'm asking if Americans will rise up together in this moment while we still can.

The anger, fear, anxiety and grief continues to outgrow my small frame. Like many of my generation, I remember first reading about slavery, the civil rights movement and the Holocaust and even then my young, naive mind couldn't comprehend how those atrocities could happen. I'm sure that I wasn't alone in asking myself what I would have done and surely I would have stood for my fellow human beings. Right? However, that requires courage. What we learn in school is only an introduction and it is up to all of us to continue to learn, read, listen, study and act. All of America is in grave peril right now. No one is going to swoop in and rescue us. All that has been built and sacrificed for generations is being burned to the ground. It doesn't matter who you are or what you believe. This is a fact and it is our turn to come together if we still value life, freedom and justice.