watercolor, acrylic paint, ink; 20×16”
“My piece is about “the death penalty” and “wrongful convictions”. There are 27 states in the USA that still have the death penalty enforced. They say that 1 out of 20 people who are put on death row are later exonerated. Even when released this does not erase the trauma and years of their life wasted sitting in prison waiting for a fate they knew they did not deserve. Represented are 20 flowers, none of them perfect. They represent lives charged with the death penalty. There is also a hand holding a dirty eraser, trying to erase one of the 20 flowers which represent the 1 out of 20 proven innocent and released from death row every year. Instead of erasing this flower, it is being covered up and streaked by the eraser. This is because even though this person may be released, they still carry the trauma gifted to them by this experience for the rest of their life.”
ARTIST BIO: Savannah Evans is a Grade 12 student at Butler Tech School of Art (SOA).