I decided to change my format for assignment #1 from writing a personal essay to drawing.I want to draw a picture of a strong quote that has a strong message behind it by Jonathan Mendoza,“Biracial boy is tug of war but biracial boy is both hands pulling at each end”. I want to draw a picture that would relate to this quote in a creative way. It would be a painting of a set of the same hands colored in the American flag or world flags in both hands pulling at each end and the write quote on top of the picture. Lastly, I want the title to be “ Being biracial in America”
Nagi,
I’m soooo excited by this!!! I love what you’re doing here — my major question is, how might you integrate the other line he has about tug of war, where he comments that “biracial boy *is* the rope”? So he’s both hands pulling, but he’s also the rope itself… how might you represent that impossible tension in your piece?
Also, I’m wondering about your choice of white-colored avatars and American flags on both of their heads — I think that is a totally effective choice, but I wonder if you can make more explicit why you chose to do that. Because the whole time, he’s talking about the burden of passing as white, so both avatars appear white and with American flags? If that was the intention, how can you increase the tension, demonstrating that it’s not just two random white people tugging the rope, but that they’re both him? That he might not be what he often appears to be on the outside, and how that agonizes him?
There is so much here already, and I’m so excited by how much more you can integrate!
Can’t wait to see what artistic choices you make!
JP