Graphic Art Students Create Visual Opinions

Using nothing more than computer graphics, a creative outlook and much to say, five ASU Graphic Art students have been named semi-finalists in The Justice Project's annual The Artists' Call for Justice national competition.

This summer, seniors Felicia N. Salgado, JoElla Mendez, Kristi Acosta and juniors Kristen Ripley and Robert Garcia were named semi-finalists, cutting 24 ASU participants down to five after weeks of planning and creation in their respective Graphic Arts classes.

"Last year, I got a wonderful brochure in the mail, and I thought it was a wonderful project to incorporate into the curriculum, so I decided to let my students do a project to enter into competition," Dr. Wen-Shu Lai, assistant professor of art, said.

The Justice Project is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with the pursuit of peace and security worldwide.

"This project offered a great opportunity for students to expand their experience of graphic art, while broadening their social awareness and making them think about art in a new dimension," Lai said.

In order to enter, students were asked to create a work which creatively explored themes related to the ideas of justice including, but not limited to, the death penalty, globalization, land mine issues, liberty and social justice and nuclear threat reduction.

"The participants had to use computer generated images to create a poster, and they had to enter the poster through e-mail. They also had to put the poster on an individual website or they would be disqualified," Lai said.

This summer, The Justice Project committee members sent instructions to the ASU semi-finalists to burn their image onto a CD to be sent to Washington D.C. for final selection. According to semi-finalist Mendez, whose poster "Choose The Right Path" dealt with the issue of parent awareness and involvement, the announcement came as a complete shock.

"I was pleasantly surprised when I found out. I think we owe a lot to Wen-Shu for being such a good professor and for pushing us into joining the competition with high expectations," Mendez said.

Along with high hopes, Garcia said the contest impacted him a great deal both personally and intellectually.

"Through my own work and looking at the work of others, the project really made me think about justice," Garcia said.

Choosing to convey a darker message about cruel and unusual punishment, Garcia decided to incorporate images of an electric chair, ghostly writing on walls and text from the 8th amendment in bold red letters.

In a letter to Lai from Dan Walsh, director of Artists' Call for Justice, Ball State University Professor of Art Christine Satory said, "The Artists' Call for Justice project is a fantastic opportunity to bring relevance and reinforcement to these young adults who want to use their talents to make a difference."

"The project also gave me experience for my career," Garcia said. "I want to go into advertising, so any graphic art experience I can gain is a plus."

Ripley said she not only gained valuable experience for her career ambitions in graphic art, but that the contest is important to her and other ASU students because she feels this is the first time many art students have received a true representation of recognition for their work.

"Throughout the three strenuous weeks I spent working on the project, I learned that if you imagine anything, it can be done," Ripley said. "I started the project by looking up the definition of globalization and used my imagination to convey my message."

Ripley's poster, the theme "It starts with a vision that can reach global proportions," features a combination of a photo of her boyfriend's eye with the world as a pupil, finished with a space background.

"I didn't think I would even have a chance in a national contest, so I feel very fortunate that I made it to the semi-finals," she said.

Ripley said she is very excited about finding out the results of the contest.

Finalists in the competition will be named Illumina Award winners, and will receive gift certificates ranging from $250 to $1000, a year's membership in the American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA) and an official Artist's Call jean jacket.

"The top three finalists will receive $1,000 in computer software, the next three will get $500 and the last three will get $250," Ripley said. "I think it would be awesome to be in the top nine. I could really use a CD burner or other computer items."

In addition, as part of the competition, the artists were required to sign away their copyrights to their work.

"Although I was a little reluctant to sign away my copyright, the contest does allow our work to possibly be put on items such as post cards, bill boards and t-shirts," Ripley said.

Lai remains hopeful the five local semi-finalists will be able to impress the Justice Project's judges, however, she says she will always be amazed at the work her students have been able to put together and will remain immensely grateful for faculty support no matter the outcome of this competition.

"I am very proud of them, and I am happy that I am a part of the project, but I think the most important thing is that my students and I got support from the Department of Liberal Arts and from many others. Without their support, we could not achieve this," Lai said.

The participants' work for the Artists' Call for Justice competition is now on display on the second floor spine-corridor of the Carr EFA building. According to the Artists' Call website (www.artistscall.org), the results of this year's competition will be announced some time this fall.