But aren't we all the same?
My name is Stacy Lynn, and I am a Phoenix, AZ based artist. The painting I am working on in this video, is called “But aren’t we all the same?” The reason I wanted to do this painting is because it shows the futility of hatred and bullying.
I was born in Detroit, MI, but when I was 6 years old, I moved to Sweden with my parents. I grew up in a little town outside of Stockholm, and my first day of school introduced me to bullying. Because I looked different, and spoke differently, I was treated differently. The bullying actually continued for a couple of years, until my parents put me in a private school with diplomat kids for the year they could afford it. Once I went back to Swedish schools, things had changed somewhat, but I was always treated as different throughout my school years.
So the reason I came up with this idea, is because I wanted to show that we are all the same, under the skin. If we removed our skin, we would only see the human race.
In the picture, I depict three ethnicities. Each has peeled away a layer of skin to show what is underneath. The little boy in the foreground, has “peeled” his arm off, to show the bone, the same type of skeleton that we all have, regardless of race or ethnicity.
The little girl, has a zipper in her skin, and unzipped, under the skin, she has a heart and blood system, just like everyone else on this planet. The little boy to the left, has “peeled” off his leg to show that he has a muscular system that looks just like everyone else.
We are all the same. Because, we all feel, we laugh, we cry, we love, we all have similar problems and joys. Falling in love, broken hearts, raising a family, pursuing a career, struggling to pay bills, etc. Same joys, same problems. The reason my subjects are children, is because they don’t see color or ethnicity or race. They don’t naturally hate what is different, but sometimes they are taught to. Observe a child seeing something different for the first time, and what you will see is wonder and intrigue. Which proves that prejudice in any form is based on ignorance and lack of imagination.
This is just the under painting, eventually I will be adding color layers. Please follow me here on my journey of painting “But aren’t we all the same?”
