watercolor, color pencil, ink; 20×16″ 
“In 2023, 4,240 books were censored, including 1,247 demands for library books, materials and resources. And those are only the ones reported to the OIF. Some titles meet in my piece. My piece depicts a black figure, sitting at a desk. There are shreds of color scattered on their body. One such shred shows one of the figure’s eyes, showing their fear. Their mouths are not shown. This symbolizes society’s attempt to censor the person. The expression shows the authors’ feelings as their works are banned. They write on a piece of paper. Their pencil catches fire and letters come up from the pencil and into a fire behind them. This represents how it can feel like every letter you write is destroyed before it is viewed. These letters follow into the fire, where they transition into titles of books banned around America. This not only symbolizes the books, degraded in society – it represents the emotions of those who censor. Along the walls are faces. They shout down at the author in many hateful emotions. Everyone deserves to have their voice heard, and writing is just one way to do it. I hope that others will consider less drastic decisions besides hate.”
ARTIST BIO: Nickolaos HATCHER is a grade 11 student at Butler Tech School of Art studying art under art teacher Mary Catherine Ruby.