Watching isn’t Enough

by: Blake Wise

What does it take to get people to listen when all of their backs are turned? 

Mirakal Jackson answers that question unapologetically and loud. What we as an audience are being told to listen to is immediately clear once we finally spot her work at a moment’s glance within the senior show at Valdosta State University. Jackson is a very bright and outspoken student from Springfield Massachusetts. Her talents don’t reach just into the creative field, she is earning minors in psychology, entrepreneurship and aerospace studies. Among her studies in the university, Jackson is also seen around the campus as an active speaker for many events and represents the school as a role model for public speaking. Her large paintings are impossible to skip over in this exhibition, and it’s made abundantly clear what the topic for discussion will be around the paintings, regardless of what the viewer might bring to the table. In her own words, Jackson’s describes the objective of her paintings and other works as: 

“Conversations about cyclical, racial, and socio-economic issues that minorities face within the judicial and social justice systems of America.”

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A Catalog of Erosion in American Society

By Blake Wise

  Attending the Dedo Maranville gallery exhibition “Bearing Witness”, visitors could possibly walk in on live debates over social issues within American economics and politics. The discussion always started on the walls and stretched around the entire gallery space connected from piece to piece. Margi Weir is the artist behind the work, and claims she’s had a myriad of different reactions from audiences since the series began, but one thing she’s always experienced is the impact. Weir’s work revolves around social constructs, governing ideology, racism, environmental issues and almost anything that has sculpted the American people over the past century into who we are, what we do and why we do it. The answers are all the same: we’re not doing enough.  

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