SWD 27

Shooting our babies, breaking our hearts

The sea monsters and two child victims of America’s genocidal gun-rights terrorism. Christina Taylor Green was born Sept. 11, 2001. She was slain in a terrorist shooting attack at a supermarket parking lot near Tuscon, Arizona, January 8, 2011. On July 4, 2020, Sequoia Turner, age 8, was shot to death in Atlanta, Georgia while she was riding in a car with family members.  

Media: Ink, gouache, colored pencil; a plastic toy gun bought at a Goodwill store, found bric-a-brac includes a piece of a pavement speed bump found on the street, a child’s night light; the dial from a broken electric clock; the outer plastic casing of a red bike safety light; and a red plastic heart attached to a metal chain.

The Art: 2017-2020. Note for viewers, July 27, 2020: The mosaic sections are in progress, late July 2020. In-progress photos to be periodically posted.
media: Mosaic-drawing combo. The size of the wood base for the whole artwork which is in-progress: 56 inches H x 29 W [142.42 cm. H x 73.66 W

Viewer's note - this artwork has not yet been professionally photographed. Stay tuned! Thanks, A.K. Segan, January 2021

The small color drawing area seen above her head, which looks a bit like 2 feathers on a pencil with a small blade facing down, is a drawing fragment from a 2010-disassembled artwork by the artist, titled ‘Homage to Pawiak Prison, Warsaw, 1984.’ Segan began that artwork with drawings done on a hillside in the southern Polish town of Rytro, August 1984.

Pawiak Prison was a notorious deadly prison in Warsaw. During its last years in use it was used as a prison for Jewish and other prisoners by the Nazis. It saw a great deal of blood and executions during it’s long and sorrowful history. During the Austrian-German Nazi occupation of Poland, it is estimated that  at least 37,000 prisoners were executed in Pawiak; an 60,000 were sent from Pawiak to the Nazi death camps.

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The drawing at upper right:
Sequoia Turner, age 8. Drawn July 2020 with ink, gouache.
Her name is spelled Secoriea in some news articles.
Framed, 11.5 inches H x 9.5 W

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A Time magazine article about Miss Turner, written by Sanya Mansoor, July 6, 2020

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A NY Times article on Christina Kelly, written  by Joseph Berger, January 9, 2011: "Born on Sept 11, Claimed by a New Horror"

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The url of an op-ed by the artist, published Sep. 13, 2017, The Columbia Missourian, Sept. 13, 2017: “Drowning out the silence of America's gun war”