Stop Being a Slave to the Design by Steven Williams
Medium: colored pencil
Dimensions: 9 x 12
Artist Statement: My piece is about breaking all the mental chains that hinder us. Drugs and guns is part of the design to keep us on the path to self destruction. We got to absorbing these stereotypes and unplug from that Jim Crow mentality, and let's get free from the design.
Image description: Colored pencil drawing, with a faded yellow to red background. At the bottom of the image, a dark skinned figure with black hair and beard is leaning and looking down, with several broken chains extending out of the back of their head. One chain links through the words “Stop being a slave to the design.” Another broken chain leads to a gun, one to a tray of drug paraphenalia, one to money signs and a devil skull with money symbols for eyes. The person is plugging a usb port into their forhead; the port is attached to a cord that becomes a hand holding a whip that is colored like the American flag. Behind the person there is a flat screen TV called “stereotype tv” with the image of two hands pulling apart bars in a cell.