Equal pay has been a hot-button topic for decades.  In 1962, President Kennedy signed the law that would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act and guarantee equal pay among genders along with the already included, ethnicities, cultures, religions, etc.  Wage equality between genders and also race inequalities still exist, even though these differences were outlawed fifty two years ago by the Congress in the “Equal Pay Act”.  Almost all statistics that come out show that women, especially women of color, get paid less than men do for the same work. 

                              Unfortunately, we are still hearing about this issue today.  Women are complaining, employers are complaining back, and the law is trying to please everyone.  It is believed, that in the year 2060, the wage gap between genders will naturally disappear.  The movement now, in modern times, is to make that happen more quickly.  All states are passing laws with varying strength to help enforce this law now so women don’t have to wait.  There are all kinds of laws being passed even at city level that help women by creating evaluations, equalizing rules, and many laws in addition to the ones we already have.  To represent this we have created a drawing of localized governments creating their own laws.  There isn’t particularly any symbolic styles we used to draw this part of the piece, but it sends a fairly straightforward message; laws are being made.  While this is good progress, we still need to be careful and consider the employers.  For example, Ohio recently proposed a bill that goes too far.  To summarize the bill, if a woman appeals to a law that she is not being fairly treated, her employer is burdened with the evidence to prove otherwise.  That means women only have to claim, and if an employer can’t properly defend himself/herself they are breaking the law.  To represent this we created a piece depicting a woman harshly speaking with a man sitting at a desk, for we must not forget the employers because they are under a great deal of pressure.  This is certainly a different style of drawing.  It is very two-dimensional.  This is definitely the clearest picture in the piece, a woman is shouting at a man sitting at a desk.  This is also something that the eye seems to find first, even though this isn’t the biggest or most important picture.  It is in the top-left corner and the eye-line follows it diagonally across the paper to the third piece.  Conveniently, it tells a simple story.  Women are unhappy, women get laws passed, women advance in the workforce.  On a final note, this is not a glorification of women advancing in the workforce.  The idea that we support is that women should be given a fair chance.

                              This piece of art definitely has a pretty deep meaning in comparison to its complexity, and we are glad of the range of abstraction.  On the other hand, we feel that someone shouldn’t use opposite concepts in the same piece, it’s almost like drawing in crayon and pencil.  Either way, the metaphorical meaning is a deep contrast to the other pieces.  On to the artistic attributes of the picture.  The eye line, as mentioned before follows the argument scene to the solution scene I mention next.  Something interesting  about silhouette is that even though it is a simpler style of art, it invites the viewer to look deeper into the art, a trait we are pleased with, as everyone’s art tends to have a deeper meaning.

                              Balance is the key.  Really, people just need to not have any biased perceptions, a concept even law cannot change.  It is up to everyone to erase the subconscious thoughts from our minds.  This is a multi-generation process as we cannot change our own minds, only growing ones.  Truly we think the creations of these laws are ridiculous except for the essentials, which the government created.  Hopefully  time will fix this difference, but let’s not make ourselves wait any longer.  To represent this we have created a picture of a man on a pile of money throwing a length of rope at a woman to show that it is not man or woman’s responsibility to end the wage gap, everyone has to not even work that much together, just cooperate.         –Nathan Collier & Kyle Cullen