painting in code

In the middle of all of this Journal52.com adventure, there was a news story that caught my attention.  There was a rock group known as "pussy riot" that got arrested for protesting in Russia. They were a group of women who wore rainbow colored ski mask and protested.  (I remember that one did not wear underpants and would raise her legs to show her "yohoo".)  It struck me that these women were using what was at their disposal to tell their government that they wanted something different in their lives.  I used Russian nesting dolls to represent the girls in the band.  I had a sticker page that the stickers were circles so I used the outlines as a stencil so I could represent the masses of faceless people they were trying to speak for.  I then painted the onion domes of Saint Basils Cathedral (at least I believe that is the name of that building) to represent Russia.  The band had a song titled "voices can break concrete" so  I painted the letters in pink.  It doesn't take much in a drawing to create symbolism.  A color, a shape, or even a stand in like a doll can represent something with out needing to paint every detail of the painting.  You just need to make sure that the "code" you use is universally understood by the people you intend to send the message to.

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