Peace in Every Color

by Eloise Schneider Mote

Title

Peace in Every Color

Artist

Eloise Schneider Mote

Medium

Painting - Mixed Media-available On Canvas, As A Framed Print, Rolled Print (u Frame), Poster, Cards

Description

In a nearby school, two little boys struggled to get the last piece of the pizza their teacher bought for the end-of-school party. The teacher glanced across the room just in time to see heads butting as she heard their voices climb decibels and frequencies and the shouting begin. Since the boys were of diverse ethnic backgrounds, the teacher feared that the tenseness was due to skin color. She was sure that the boys would have already come to blows except that to throw the first punch meant letting go of the pizza!
..................................................................................................................................
As she approached them, one little boy sized up the situation immediately: "Look, Ms. Mary! I know what you are going to say. And I've learned that 'tolerance' word that is in the school motto. But I don't care if he is PURPLE as long as he LETS GO OF MY PIZZA!!" Reality check. Two little boys just wanted pizza. Maybe they were hungry. Maybe they never got pizza at home. Maybe it was a power play to see who could get the very last piece. But ultimately, it just came down to what they wanted. The teacher, of course, cut the last piece of pizza in half and split it between them. After consuming it in very few seconds, the boys ran out to play.
......................................................................................................................................
Like the boy in the story, this painting focuses on "caring if someone is PURPLE" - or pink, yellow, red, orange, blue, teal, green, brown, olive, black, or white. The title of the painting is "Peace for Every Color" - peace for all the purples, greens, browns ... well, you get it. Peace for every color. Can it happen? Who knows. It's all about what we want. Do we really care about the purples, or are we really afraid that the purples will take what the greens want? It's not about the color as much as it is about the wants.
..................................................................................................................................
The internationally recognized symbol for peace ☮ was originally designed for the British nuclear disarmament movement in the late 1950s. The symbol is a combination of flag signals for the letters "N" and "D," standing for "nuclear disarmament". The letter "N" is formed by a person holding two flags in an upside-down "V," and the letter "D" is formed by holding one flag pointed straight up and the other pointed straight down. The ✌ sign is a hand gesture, palm outwards, with the index and middle fingers open and all others closed. It had been used to represent victory during the Second World War. But in protests in the USA against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and in subsequent anti-war protests the hand sign was adopted by many as a sign of peace. How interesting that both symbols have changed so dramatically in their meanings over the years - perhaps it comes down to the same simple truth that one very smart little school boy espoused: "I don't care if he is purple as long as he gives me ... " WHAT I WANT.
..............................................................................................................................
Peace only comes to those who want it.

Uploaded

February 15th, 2013

Colors

Embed

Share

Tags