‘Summer Of 16’ Series
As you know, this summer has been crazy eventful in the media with critical situations popping off locally and abroad. The Pulse night club shooting, missing students in Oaxaca, Syrian crisis, gender inequality issues, Police shootings, ridiculous presidential candidates, floods in Louisiana, contaminated water in Michigan, Rio Olympics and so much more. It has proven to be a season that has exposed many of humanities negative attributes, some of its complexities and sometimes its grace.
Around the first couple of weeks in June as I was working on a series of ten small illustrations for a client, I was listening to National Public Radio as I usually do while I work and could not help but notice the higher-than-usual frequency of these dramatic events. I know there is always international news coverage of the like, but somehow it seemed much more frequent this summer and in some instances, similar stories would repeat themselves in different places in such a small amount of time. Maybe it’s because many of us now have access to broadcasting the news ourselves via social media. I don’t know, but whatever the case, I absorbed all of it and created an album of visual responses.
In these pieces I felt like it was important not to repeat what had already been broadcasted or give you a matter-of-fact literal reaction, since cameras, eyewitnesses and journalists already provide that. I’m not a professional wordsmith, or journalist so I will leave you with these visual perspectives and let you do the rest.
samrodriguezart.com
