Regular readers of this blog know that I feature visual art because I believe so strongly in the power of art to help foster social change.  Over the past few weeks, I have been sharing visual art pieces that have been created or donated to our upcoming Art against Incarceration show.

Today, I want to feature new work by one of my favorite contemporary artists and printmakers: Favianna Rodriguez.  This work is not part of our Art against Incarceration show. I discovered Favianna through browsing through the Just Seeds Artists’ Cooperative website a few years ago.  I have been following her work ever since and in fact just purchased a set of her new poster series about food justice a couple of weeks ago.

Favianna just announced  on her blog some new art that she has completed for the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center.

Here is one of the pieces called “Transition.”

Transition by Favianna Rodriguez

Beautiful and powerful work.  She offers a description of the art here:

The first piece above is titled, “Transition.” This piece centers around the themes of change, transition and goal-setting. The central protagonist is a young teenage woman who is imagining the many possibilities which her future offers her. Her hands are open in a manner that alludes to a yoga pose in which the person is opening themselves up to the universe, as an act of meditation. The open hands also symbolize the many practices that one can do with their hands, including music, art, dance, writing, exercise, typing, building, and reading. The shades on the woman reflect a spectrum of races – the young woman can be all of us. In the composition, the central figure is grounded and is imagining herself as a writer and as a singer. Behind her is a circle that represents the planet. The yellow and orange hues used in the piece represent a new beginning. The background textures were developed via a monoprint process in which I overlaid various shapes in multiple drops of etching ink. The primary objective of the piece is to empower young women to think about their futures as myriad of opportunities.