Mother of Exiles, Statue of Liberty, Crying, Pencil Drawing on Paper, 9x9 inches

The plaque on the wall of the Statue of Liberty reads, in part:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

This used to be America. It didn't say, "We will snatch your children from you and store them in an old WalMart. We will return you to your abusive husband or to be killed by drug cartels. We don't even know what we will do with your children." 

My own great-grandparents would never have  come here if they thought this would happen to their family. Have we completely lost our humanity?

Carmen

 

Statue of Liberty, "Mother of Exiles," 9x9 Pencil Drawing

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We are all familiar with the words," "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...," but here is the whole poem, identifying the Statue of Liberty and America as Mother of Exiles:

THE NEW COLUSSUS

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

--Emma Lazarus 

In view of recent events, this is my interpretation of the Mother of Exiles.

Carmen

Still Life with Zen, 9x9 Pen and Ink Drawing

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I haven't been doing much artwork this week, except for illustrations for a memoir I am working on. It's now time for me to paint the cover art, and that will be a relief, after sitting at the computer for three days straight getting the book laid out.

The drawing above was our challenge presented by Kathy Garvey to the Pieces of 8 last week. The challenge was to make everything look flat and one-dimensional. I think I slipped up with the zentangles inside the mango (between the glass and the teapot.) They are giving it some shape. I admit that's my favorite part of the drawing.

No. 10 on my list of things we should not put up with, yet we do:

Grocery products are getting smaller, yet costing more. There is either less in the package (like coffee and sugar), or the product itself shrinks (like toilet paper that is getting narrower and narrower in width), yet the cost is higher. You might say less is more.