No More Silence

I know this seems a deviation from my usual Fantasy Art, but at the same time, I needed to make this and share it with you here.

When my husband, Kevin, and I first started getting serious as a couple, people’s support of us turned from reluctant smiles to “Are you sure you want to date him? That could make life harder for you.“ Hearing this from people I love and respect popped the optimistic bubble I had always lived in.

All my favorite movies and stories had taught me that I could grow up to be anything I wanted, that everyone was created equal, that I was a good person who could stand up against injustice like my heroes, but the true lesson from those around me was this…

…I could do all those things as long as I was safe and didn’t marry a good man who I adored and who adored me, because it was easier to just move on to someone ‘safer’ who was not black. The world wouldn’t change any time soon, so I should just be safe.

Kev and I have usually been silent online about these topics for fear of upsetting anyone. Conversations about tolerance, guilt, and racial misconceptions were best left for private one-on-one conversations with friends and family. It’s finally the time for these conversations to happen out loud. If we’ve learned anything from the past few weeks, it’s that so many folks are like us. They have kept silent for a long time awaiting a single voice to give them the courage to speak out.

Now’s the time we need to choose not to be safe and comfortable. Now’s a chance to catch the world up with the fine sensibilities that we preach to our children and ourselves, but that we don’t have the same courage to live by.

I’ve used my art for examining morality in a ‘safe’ indirect way via the Fantasy genre, but if ever there was a time to be direct, it is now. I want to be like my epic Fantasy heroes and now all of us have a chance to be!

Kev and I really wish we could be out there helping voices be heard, but due to his medical fragility as a heart and cancer patient, we have to self-isolate as much as possible right now. I wanted to do what is within my power to do and that is to create something with art! I'll be doing icons in the style of this piece to help support the cause.

Let’s be heroes, guys. Stand up. Speak out! Don’t be silenced by fear and comfort. I know we have the power to change things together because together is the only way the world can, and has, changed!

Much love,
♥ Ang

Portrait Icons for Charity

Please see this post for more details on how this works.