Artist Statement : Arizabeth Baez, Colaborative, Community-driven, Expressive.

Being an artist can mean many things. For me, it's having the ability to give the public a voice to express themselves. I always found myself to have an eye for things that most people don't see. My favorite thing is to tell stories and capture them for everyone to see and feel. I will be honest, this is my second time doing a statement apart from the Junior Review. But I find it very important to do so. Some special facts about my current work are that it can be seen as expressive and abstract. This specific artwork that I am currently doing is community-driven and collaborative. I come from a background and family that, as long as I can remember, has been very hard to express how I feel and more. So this was my chance to do something for everyone and have them know that they are not alone; it goes with the concept that I came up with, too. This culture was a percentage of my influence on this art project.

    The installation will be open and welcomes anyone who wants to pass by it. To be more specific, there is a mixed medium that is being used for this project. So, for this project, it will consist of a 36x48 chalkboard, quite a few markers, and many Band-Aids. There is a reason for all these materials. For the chalkboard, it was a good idea for the "expressive base". As for the markers, there are chalk markers to be specific. They allow for the writing to be more visible and less prone to being erased so easily. Lastly, for the band-aids, they are used to cover the writing. 

    The concept for his project is to have the community of this school answer one question: "What hurt you today...why?" They would write in small letters and then get covered (healed) with the band-aids. The band-aids are "healing" the wounds (words). Thus giving the title "United we heal". For tools, the only things that would be required to be used for this installation are a long enough table. This table will allow the project to stand out to the public. 

    I'm excited and hoping many students will participate in this. One uniqueness that this project has is that there is the use of band-aids.