artist statement
He alone who owns the youth gains the future. -Adolf Hitler
Genetic engineering has the potential to be humanity’s biggest mistake. If approached the wrong way, we could unleash a monster we have no way of controlling. In this way, the social inequality that would result if genetic engineering were to be available in its current state would be more destructive to the human race than the tragic consequences of the atomic bomb. This idea is represented in my painting by the fetus inside of the atomic bomb. The child’s umbilical cord is attached to the bomb, signifying that the creation and life of the child itself is what is driving destruction. The green background of the painting, as well as the red surrounding the child, and their respective juxtapositions to the cold, metallic color of the bomb, are meant to represent the meeting of nature and technology. Adolf Hitler’s quote is meant to represent the type of consequence in both the fact that Hitler drove the Holocaust and the quote itself representing the idea of the divide between rich and poor becoming further divided in society. Additionally, the strands of DNA on the borders of the piece better signify the subject matter, and visually illustrate the graceful state of the natural human genome.