Merida Toala

The United States of America was built by immigrants, and this country has benefited from the innovation that they bring. Immigrants make up a significant portion of the workforce in a range of industries, over two-fifths of all farming, fishing, and forestry workers, and one-quarter working in math and sciences. (americanimmigrationcouncil.org). Over the past few years, immigration has sparked major attention. From building a wall, deporting families, a global pandemic that paused visa services, and now holding separated immigrant families in detention camps. Many people in power do not support immigrants but fail to acknowledge that this country capitalizes off immigrant culture on a daily basis. I wanted my poster to display immigrant struggles in America, the detention camps being on of them, as well as authentic citizens supporting immigration reform through the handwritten posters. The typography I included is a bold message, and I wanted the graphics to decipher that in a way th...

     For this assignment, the topic I chose was immigration rights, which are civil rights laws for people born in foreign countries who migrate to another permanently. In recent years, the media has put a spotlight on the struggles of immigrants trying to come to America. The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been capturing undocumented immigrants across the states and holding them in detention camps. In these camps, abuse and mistreatment occur. Oftentimes, families are separated from one another, children from their mothers and siblings. People are detained in these camps because the government is trying to find "that they are either a danger to society or a flight risk." (ACLU. 2022) I do not believe that immigrants are treated fairly in these detention camps and there should be reform for allowing foreigners to reside in America. Concept #1      For this poster, the idea I had was to use the outline of the United States' land....

  The "Charging Bull" and "Fearless Girl" on Wall Street, NYC by NBC News. Original Photo:  Hijack Concept Sketches: My photomontage image hijack: My intention with this assignment was to manipulate the original meaning of the "Charging Bull" image and the "Fearless Girl" taken by Getty Images. I wanted to display a message of gun violence in America against children. My goal was to show the comparison between the "Fearless Girl" and the American children of today who have to be fearless in an instance of a school shooting.  I incorporated firearms, pistols, child protesters, a police car, a bulletproof backpack, and an American Flag. I enjoyed exploring the different tools, settings, and techniques in Photoshop that helped me enhance the original photo into the message I wanted to portray. I was utilizing the saturation and brightness, the opacity of different elements, layering, merging, and more to create the final product.  When you...

Mystery of the Street by Otto Umbehr, 1928, The Metropolitan Museum of Art The last issue that I want to address, based on this photo, is violence and drugs in America. Although this picture is from an earlier time period, when I look at it I can relate it to another. The mystery of the streets is demonstrated by the narcotics and violence that followed the War on Drugs. Alcohol, pills, needles, guns, murder. The shadows of the people walking caught my attention in the original photo, I altered the image to where the shadows are walking through the streets of crime and drugs. Another neutral photo turned negative.  Working towards improving my drawing skills, feel free to comment!

  Abandoned House by Walker Evans, 1973-74, The Metropolitan Museum of  Art This picture projects poverty to me. In my imagination and personal experience, this is what poverty looks like. In my hijack, I wanted to deepen this narrative. I do not think just because the house looks abandoned and is small, that it signifies poverty. The elements in the picture can give context that this house is not taken care of. Dead grass, tilted structure, no paint. In my sketch, I wanted to emphasize poverty. I was reminded about the struggles that people go through because of how the home looked. I wanted to hijack the image by escalating from neutral to negative. The home is home regardless of how it looks, but a poor mother can not care for her son in today's society in a home like this. A mother does all that she can even beg strangers. Poverty makes you powerless. A woman had no assets, no money. All she had was her small abandoned home, and that was not enough to keep her son so Child...

  This photograph was created by Larry Cook in 2019. I found this piece on the Museum of Modern Art's (MoMA) Website. This photo stood out to me because there are not a lot of elements creating a story for the picture. Elements such as emotion, and facial expression. Although body language does play a part in the way I interpreted this picture. I feel as though this picture allows the viewer to imagine their own narrative.  The social issue that I thought about for this image was greed. In today's society,  a lot of people do not appreciate what they have, they are always wanting more. I wanted to portray the idea of greed in this hijack because I felt "what if" one thing were changed about this photo would it change the perspective? I thought about some things that make people greedy, such as money, property, and fame. In my opinion, the body language of the girl can be analyzed in multiple different manners. One narrative that I wanted to portray in my hijack is tha...