Painters for Human Rights Blog

CALL TO ARTISTS

2011-06-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

For contest rules please visit: http://www.cchrflorida.org/youthgroup/index.html

Reasons for the Game:
Many individuals, throughout the world, are given a mental health or behavioral health label, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Bipolar. What they are not told is that Psychiatrists at an American Psychiatric Association convention were asked, “Are there any medical or scientific tests for psychiatric disorders?”

The answer, one-for-one, was “NO”. (see “No Science No Cures “ below)

Innocent until proven guilty

2011-05-26T06:44:00.000-07:00

HUMAN RIGHT 11
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

digital painting

Human Rights Art Contest - Meet the Winners

2011-05-19T15:49:00.000-07:00

HUMAN RIGHT 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

FIRST PLACE WINNER - NADIA PLESNER

Darfurnica

Darfurnica is a painted piece of history. A story about yet another man made crisis in Darfur even with Rwanda and "never again" fresh in our memory. Darfurnica is also a story about greed. Killings. Rape. Children. Oil. Refugees. A story about the media. And a story about which headlines were presented to the readers in the Western world while the genocide in Darfur was and still is taking place. A story about Paris. Britney. Victoria. And Jade. A story about the world today. About people who were so busy consuming that they forgot about their fellow human beings.

Picasso's Guernica has been the most famous art symbol of the horrors of war since it was painted in 1937. Apparently there is no limit for the human creativity when it comes to exterminating each other both in practice and the justification behind it. Our ways of communicating have become faster and made the world smaller, yet we fail to communicate about how to stop genocide from happening and keeping the focus on places where it is needed the most, like Darfur.

Guernica imitated newspaper images from it's own time, Darfurnica imitates mass media in the West: fast, colorful, shallow and entertaining, with even the most horrific stories wrapped in something glossy to make them digestible.

The boundaries between the editorial and advertising departments in the media are disappearing and entertainment stories about the lives of Hollywood celebrities have become breaking news. Apparantly, in our time a genocide in Africa can be happening RIGHT NOW without being important enough to make headlines. This is unacceptable and I refuse to turn the blind eye to what is happening. The story about Darfur must be told.

Artist: Nadia Plesner
http://www.nadiaplesner.com/
contact@nadiaplesner.com

2ND/3RD PLACE WNINER ALEJANDRO MORENO ALANIS

©Alejandro Moreno Alanis

Displaced Congolese Girls

My inspiration for this painting came after watching a news clip about displacements in Congo. The image of this girl taking care of her little sister after being lost from their parents during a displacement, impacted me so much. Stories like this go through the media and make news for the moment and soon after are forgotten. So I decided to make the painting as a constant outcry. Women and children are more vulnerable during armed conflicts. If We are all free and equal, Why should these kids in places like Congo not enjoy the same quality of life and security as any kid from a first world country.

©Alejandro Moreno Alanis

Can You Hear me?

Women and children are the most vulnerable during armed conflicts and with the ongoing wars in the middle east, this worsens the lives of women in particular who already suffer abuse and humiliation. Women’s rights and gender equality is not seen as a priority in many parts of the world and these current invasions do not provide a solution but increase the suffering.

Alejandro Moreno Alanis

I create art pieces with empathy towards social issues and the need for global unity and harmony. I believe social change requires critical analysis, questioning the status quo, thinking and working towards improvements and better alternatives. For this to be possible, freedom of expression is fundamental. Through my art I express my nonconformity, the pain of current situations, and try to transmit and promote empathy and compassion as a way to resolve issues that affect us all.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Empathic-Art-Visions/154444521236687

https://www.facebook.com/alanisart

Art Contest -- We are All Free and Equal

2011-02-23T09:56:00.000-08:00

We are currently revamping and updating our online gallery with new art, and accept new submissions for Human Right 1.

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Contests are planned for each of the 30 Human Rights.

Stay tuned....

We are all Free and Equal -- Human Right 1

2010-08-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood"

painting on canvas, 31” x 38”,
©2010Marcelle La Cour

DREAMS DON'T LIE
This painting is about the dreams one has for one’s own life and the path one chooses to walk to reach them. I believe that all human beings are born with the concept of free choice, with their own dreams and the right to pursue them, and with the conscience and dignity that is inherent in every one of us. Anything that obstructs or denies this freedom kills the spark of life that holds us to our dreams and goals.

The ability to pursue and achieve them is what fuels and creates the world we experience. That dreaming spark can be so fragile, so easily broken or corrupted. And so, any act, custom or rule that would impede our rights to our dreams as individuals, families, groups and nations, denies the progress and beauties of living that we strive for.

In this painting the doves of light and ravens of shadow both flow from the figure walking toward his dreams. The doves fly toward freedom, as does the soul of the figure. The ravens sink into shadow and emptiness as he ignores their watchful gaze, with no other thought than to reach his goal, where his dreams have flown.

My dream is to show the beauty of life, colored by the transcendent hues of light and shadow falling upon the physical world that holds so much beauty, and to offer new ways to look at the world—to spark the dreams in others so that they may, perhaps, choose the path of their own dreams and deny anything that would stop them. This is their right.
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Article and image submitted by
©2010Marcelle La Cour
www.LaCourFineArt.com

Culture and Copyright -- Human Right 27

2010-08-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

"Where do we draw the Line?"
A quick, yet thoroughly and exploratory worked sketch, "Where do we draw the Line?" defines and illustrates that question for Indigenous people on where it is we stand today, technologically, politically, environmentally, medically, every way possible that affects us from the Western world compared to our Old world. The questions are a bit difficult to grasp as I had been researching and reasoning/discussing with a friend on Existentialism. Where is it we, as cultured Indigenous people, place ourselves? As individuals? In this globalized and colonized world where mental and technological assimilation has no preference to race, sex, gender, religion, etc...

The human figure defines an elder, someone of extreme cultural, social, and governmental importance to Indigenous culture.

The figuratively-implied shape out of lines defines a traditional-style horse.

These two one in the same relatives and relations in traditional culture, still amidst the same world, but have become vastly separated in ways that are not recognizable, to the point it is easy to make out the human face in our eyes, but the horse figure almost abstract and unrecognizable unless putting in some visual effort. An abstraction to visually define a broken connection..an old belief and view now apathetically unthought of. This defines symbolically our lost sight of animals as our relatives (symbolically including our earth's place as a whole), as we have become swallowed by cooperate agendas and dependence on colonized needs. We now exist as Indigenous people in a synthetic-nature, where everything is clearly defined with an exact scientific and mathematical answer, purpose, and reason.

I quote from my artistic thesis the part this piece defines visually:"Technological acceleration does not affect out way of living - it is our new and comprehensive host of life, the environment of living itself. It is not the effect of technology on the environment, culture, economy, religions, etc., but rather that all these categories exist in technology. In this sense technology is new nature. The living environment, old nature, is replaced by a manufactured milieu, an engineered host-synthetic nature. In a real sense, we are off planet, swelling on the lunar surface of stone, cement, asphalt, glass, steel and plastics, engulfed in the atmosphere of radioactive oxygen and electromagnetic vibrations - the soothing aroma of atomic nuclear energy, the soothing lullabies of the machine. The common notion tells us that technology is neutral, that we can use it for good or bad. Though, in my opinion, we do not use technology, we live technology; technology is our way of life. Being sensitive entities (especially as Indigenous people), we always have and will become our environment - we become what we see (or may not see), what we hear, what we eat, what we smell, what we touch, etc. Where doubt and questioning is prohibited (indigenous or not), we become, without question, the environment we live in..."

Where does the line exist between adaptation and absorption? Between integration and imitation? Who defines these lines?

This line is completely individual-based. Which is what this entire piece is created from, individual lines.
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No Torture or Degrading Treatment -- Human Right 5

2009-07-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

©-Shabnam Miller

Human Rights Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

My painting is dedicated the people who are willing to die for their rights and who have everything to lose and dare to lose it all.

This painting is called the "Realization of the Blue". It tells the story of society who looks, watches, sees and feels but is paralyzing itself in doing good. It's about a Key. In my painting it comes in form of a light bulb we fail to see because it is too obvious. This very Key that keeps the Iranian students locked up right now in the cells of Evin Prison waiting for their fate. All because they demanded for their keys to be returned during the post election rallies! Someone is holding it and its heavy. Humans are fundamentally good. Holding such a key can't feel anything but heavy.

Then the question is? Can you lose this Key? Or does someone steal it from you? And the answer is that you can only loose this Key in the west. The key is stolen and may never be recovered to/by you when your human rights are broken. And sometimes you are sitting ON the key AND the box and just don't realize that you have the ingredients to unlock it all.

You have heard of the circus Elephants who are chained to a small metal stud in the ground, right? As they grow older the chain and stud remain the same size while the elephant grows bigger and stronger; but doesn't realize that the chain cannot physically keep him where he is.

How will the Elephant find his key? How can Iran find it's Independence and Freedom, or Darfur it's Reason and Dignity? And what makes us unique humans feel such an urge to constantly take each other's key away? Is History repeating itself just so we can say "History repeats itself". Or are we suppose to learn from it?

Humanity is either going in circles or improving in such a slow pace that it almost looks like a circle? There are huge possibility in front of us, but we failed to recognize it over and over again. Because idiotic ideals and politics get in the way.
Anne Frank said "How wonderful is it that you don't need to wait a single moment to improve the world"

What some don't understand is how heavy and powerful words can be. Because you are able hear them years after they were spoken and learn from them. The impact may not be immediate but consistent because it has to be placed like a seed and then grow over the years. That's why the most important human right is Freedom of Speech. Freedom to express yourself. Only through each other, our mistakes and pain can we learn and start improving the world.

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. ~ Lincoln

This quote explain to us that we can try to make it ok for us by labeling it differently and drawing in political explanations for our paralyzed none doing - but it stays what it is. We are guilty of looking away until we decide to speak up.

And as artists it is our duty to do so.
© -Shabnam Miller

Poem on Human Rights

2009-07-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

-Artwork by Susi Galloway ©2006

Human rights there be fights
Human rights are your rights
Enslavers and depots say no
Human rights there be fights

Human rights are your freedoms
Know them, demand them, defend them
The right to be, the right to do, the right to have
Human rights there be fights

Human rights you first have to believe you deserve
No dictator will tell you your rights
Your belief in your rights are your might
Human rights there will be fights

Your right to communicate
Your right to think
Your right to create
Human rights there be fights

The enslavers try to say you’re crazy when you demand your rights
Human rights are your rights
Human rights are your mights
Human rights never slight

-Poem by James Newell ©2008

Free to Say what You Want -- Human Right 19

2009-07-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Article 19, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

©Aunia Kahn

“We Soon Forget”
The inability to speak, make known or express a voice is one of the most basic and yet most violated rights often suppressed. In “We Soon Forget” although the silencing does not seem inherently violent, the inability to make known the woman’s plight is equal to mental and emotional strife and torture because she cannot freely make known any issue she may be facing.

About the artist:
Aunia Kahn was born and raised in Detroit, MI. In 2005 her career was officially launched with her first exhibition, and immediately gained interest in fine art gallery showings across the United States and internationally. Kahn's works are a combination of many disciplines wrapped into one, which create a hybrid art form consisting of melding photography, painting and collage. Each works makes use of her own likeness in movie-like stills of elegant decadence, varied taboo and often controversial subject matter to challenge the viewer, their understanding and preconceived notions; yet she connects through honest feeling and emotions present in today’s society. She designs, builds, and executes characters, non-existent places, dreams, illusions, fears and fables.

www.auniakahn.com

The Right to Life -- Human Right 3

2009-07-09T17:55:00.000-07:00

Article 3.
"Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person."

The Neda of Iran
I dedicate all my artistic ability to the woman of Iran and the middle east. I feel such a strong connection towards them and they are in every brushstroke I take on the canvas. I pray for their freedom to choose, freedom of speech and freedom to make decisions on their own behalf.

©Shabnam Miller
If you make one part of the population suffer - the other part suffers too. A man can't be happy if his woman is suffering. Does the same thing count for the world as a whole? If one part of the globe is suffering does the rest ( the west) suffer as well and if so - why in silence? Have you ever asked yourself why you're never completely happy?

You won't be able to change anything if you're standing in a hole and accept that you're standing in a hole. When will humanity learn to put human rights and dignity before anything else.

History if it's written about politics of this world are never glorious only if it captures personal stories within. And the protesters on the streets in Iran are capturing every aspect of Glory that is driven by the love for one another and freedom! One of the stories is Neda's story. It's not one woman's story but the story of all woman forced by law to live and behave in a way that is completely against the nature of any woman - any human!

In the west we have to realize that someone else gave their blood for our freedom. It's time to help the rest of the world to achieve this. We cannot achieve this by looking the other way. I am unable to close my eyes. I refuse to be quiet. We as artists have a voice that we're mandated to use!

The beautiful young educated people on the streets in Iran are protesting unarmed for something we already take for granted. They have everything to lose and dare to lose it all. They are full of energy and able to make a change within their own country. But their rights are being broken and we need to be their voice. Their energy to continue is inspiring and I cannot stop watching in awe. Change is within reach and doesn't have to be pushed over onto the next generation, because the next generation will push it over to the next!

I am Neda - You are too!

--Shabnam Miller, Germany
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About my painting:
She is trapped in a room that looks cold and very much like a cell, the window is the size of a laptop, and by looking at it she can see the world on the other side and this enables her to blossom. The blade (dictatorship) hanging from the ceiling is within eyesight and very sharp. But it's smaller than she thinks, the onlooker is hoping that she realizes that and dares to sneak underneath it towards the open window without being afraid to get cut. In the right side corner I've worked in a feather which is writing something in red - the "law". This is Iran, this is a Persian woman, this is an Arab woman, and afghan girl. -- This is Neda!
©Shabnam Miller

Innocent until proven Guilty -- Human Right 11

2009-07-09T13:20:00.001-07:00

Article 11.

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed

Injustice - (c) Susi Galloway