Debra Styer Illustration

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lost and found

I just wanted to say a few words about the events in Boston. I grew up in Massachusetts and went to school in Boston (Massachusetts College of Art). It broke my heart to see such unimaginable wreckage happen on Monday, I got sucked into all watching all the pain and gory details on street that I spent a lot of time on in my youth. It sickened me, it sickened all of us.

There is not much that I feel like I can do when events like this take place. (There just seems to be more of them these days). I get lost in them. I lose my self for a few days and can't get much work done. I don't really care for this weakness in myself. I want to understand why? This kind of shit happens all over the world everyday and we don't hear much about it. We definitely don't hear the stories of the dead. We feel numb about it if we hear anything at all. With newscasts, it is all just a numbers game, isn't it?

I think we are all a little numb and waiting for the time to stop thinking about the events until the next one comes along. Something even more horrific to wake our selves up for a day or two. Something to be forgotten a week or two later. I sometimes wonder about what artists can do. What I can do? Is there still room for activism? Can we really make some sort of real change?

Art activism seems too political and p.c. these days to make a connection. I want to feel, I want to feel part of something. But where do you start? What can we do?

Any thoughts?