This is a self-promotional artwork that is meant to raise awareness for domestic violence. I’m sure you all know what abuse is so I won’t even bother you with any statistics. I’m not even going to link to any websites, because they might not be relevant to where you are living. In fact, that’s all I am going to say about the subject because I am not really qualified to talk about it…
But the fact is, this article is NOT really about domestic violence. Right. So I am neither an abuser nor a victim. I’d actually rather talk about the illustration. I took my inspiration from the Guns N’ Roses song, Sweet Child O’ Mine, specifically from these lyrics:
She’s got eyes of the bluest skies
As if they thought of rain
I’d hate to look into those eyes
And see an ounce of pain
That’s how I came up with the idea of using shapes within an iris to represent the pain in a victim’s eyes. Look again at that illustration. My sister (who has studied fine art at university and is surely a better artist than me) didn’t notice those shapes straight away.
I tried to imagine what the the fear in a woman’s* eyes would look like if she were on the verge of being physically attacked (or killed). Because sadly it happens, doesn’t it?
I originally wanted to depict simple shapes of people being attacked all around the perimeter of the iris, sort of like Judo characters being thrown about or attacked with knives and other dangerous stuff. That ended up being way too hard and looked rather silly as well, so I used the outline of a tightly clenched fist to represent the idea of power and dominance. And to add some drama I have added in some blood vessels –dare I say it– “in the same vein”. Oh boy I said it.