The Girls Just Wanna Paint Challenge for this month is the theme "passage". Usually, I think about the theme, and I wind up with several ideas and mental pictures from which to choose. But, "passage" had me a bit flummoxed. I thought about Bible passages (I'm no expert, and didn't want to illustrate a narrative), then about passages to other places as in the "The Secret Garden", then about "rites of passage" in life... but still, no interesting visuals came to mind. Then, I began searching for images of "safe passage". I discovered an organization called Safe Passage, originating in the Chicago area. It involves Chicago Police-trained volunteers providing a safe passage for students to and from school in neighborhoods where violence is the norm. This model has expanded to other cities as well. I explored several design ideas for presenting the Safe Passage volunteer as a barrier to violence. You can see the designs below.
From the beginning, my idea was not to present the guard completely, but as an obstruction between any violence and the stream of children behind. As a teacher, this research was a good reminder for me, how much many children deal with before they even arrive in a classroom seat. The Safe Passage model has expanded to a number of cities. Glad to see it.
Thank you for looking.
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