I live in a house contained in a neighborhood, housed in a community, located in town, nestled in a county, situated in a state, demarcated by a country, that is part of the world.
If everyone remembers this every day as they live through the little moments then together we can change the plight of human rights.
These rights start with one person being conscious of how their acts impact the world, how a microcosmic environment affects the macro-cosmic environment. This requires following the trail of basic human rights-be that knowing where the sugar from your table came from to the way your kids treat others.
Understanding your human rights is opening yourself up to understanding another soul, to think of life through another’s eyes. Art is also opening yourself up and seeing a snapshot of someone else’s sensations, their thoughts, and their beliefs. This makes art the perfect medium to spread awareness of human rights.
While everyone looks at a painting and walks away with a different feeling or impression, everyone will handle basic human rights in a similar fashion. I can teach a class where students in the class paint the same picture. Those students may walk away with a similar painting but the differences in the strokes, the pressure, the discolorations makes each piece unique and different. I can only teach the class. The students must then make what they learned a reality.
Organizations like the United Nations and Amnesty International over decades have formulated and adopted a set of 30 basic human rights. It is up to us as students of human nature to walk away from the class putting our strokes and our discolorations to each right so every human of the world has a beautiful, unique life experience.
Throughout 2015, Watercolors By Design will be exploring and raising awareness of human rights through art. To join the conversation please use hashtag #30ForEvery1.
~Mychelle