pen, watercolor, color pencil, white gel pens; 20×16″
“Women are trapped. For centuries, women have been treated as “less than” and discriminated against. Their lives are dictated by others. But we can change that “are” to “were”. In my piece, I used many symbols associated with women. The red roses represent men/violence and the yellow represent women/strength. The broken ladder represents how women can only climb so high before they are limited by others. The sign in the bottom left represents the amount women get paid compared to men. The reflection represents the pressure to be “perfect”. The eyes are society, watching her every move. The white ribbons represent women’s rights. The owl is Athena’s owl, which represents wisdom. The pink represents femininity. As someone who has experienced discrimination for being a woman, making this piece was very personal. It has been centuries, and the treatment of women hasn’t improved much. Women are half of the humans in this world. We can make a change if we want to. No matter how many rungs break, we can always fix the ladder and climb.”
ARTIST BIO: Stormie GROSS is a grade 11 student at Butler Tech School of Art studying art under art teacher Mary Catherine Ruby.