Emerald Rose Whipple’s Print Initiative is aimed to support UNICEF in its mission to provide aid to vulnerable children around the world who are existentially threatened by this (COVID-19) global crisis. The initiative will offer a limited edition 3-4 screen print on recycled paper, with 100% of purchase proceeds directed towards UNICEF. The prints will be listed at $500 and are size 11 3/8 x 17 inches. The artist has chosen to work with UNICEF on this initiative because of its advocacy for the rights of every child in the world and the organization’s global reach. As an agency of the United Nations, and working in over 190 countries and territories, UNICEF is uniquely poised to the needs of vulnerable children across in the world.

As many of us live with indifference towards the suffering of the world, Whipple asks viewers of her work to remember our wealth of opportunities during childhood and to support those who start life with the odds severely stacked against them. Nurturing and caring for children of the world are the foundations of human progress. As adults, we must protect the rights of children everywhere by caring for both their physical wellbeing and their mental health. Every kid has the right to a childhood and the opportunity to grow and explore who they are as individuals. This initiative acts as a way to aid the world’s most vulnerable children: orphans who struggle everyday to survive and grow. As an orphaned child herself, Whipple was fortunate to have been adopted early in her life by a loving family. Having lived her youth with no knowledge of her biological roots allowed the artist to metaphorically adopt the whole world as her community. For Whipple, we are all family. Her belief is that we must love and support one another no matter who we are or where we come from.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

‘Kilauea, Kauai HI’ was completed in New York in 2014 after Whipple received news of her adopted mother’s terminal illness (who ultimately passed away in Hawaii in May of 2014). Her mother, who struggled with physical and mental illness most of her life, inspired Whipple to cherish each moment with a pervading presence of human mortality. In many respects, her mother’s diagnosis coincided with the start of her art career. This painting was a way for her to create a sense of peace with her mother’s decline and manage everything that comes with grief and the loss of a loved one.

When examined up close, the pointillism in this work references the interconnectedness of all things on the physical plane. The abstraction not only introduces a state of trance but also invites the viewer to explore physical perception. The wider our gaze becomes when viewing the work a clearer picture forms. Whipple reminds us to widen our gaze of compassion from being concerned primarily with the self to all beings of the world.

STATEMENT FROM THE ARTIST

As a human being on the planet, the more I move through time, the more I see the distress of the world, the only actions I feel I can take are those which relieve suffering at any level. Trauma and suffering whether it is our own or that of another disrupts the conceptual realm of thought. It is a shock to the system. And in that recognition, life becomes a constant act of harmonizing the intuitive heart and the rational mind. We are subject to the paradox of the totality of life. We can experience the awe and absolute majesty of the forest in the perfection of nature’s law. Yet, at the same moment, we bear witness to the suffering of the world we exist in. Do we have the capacity to witness both? Can we balance the serenity and perfection of the forest with the simultaneous knowledge of vulnerable children facing death from illness, malnutrition mal nutrition and external circumstances? Life becomes a practice of witnessing the pain and suffering of the world with love and compassion, without turning away from it, to encompass the all of existence.

Painting itself is an act of meditation. A chance to transform the suffering of my own human experience, of others I have witnessed, and of the world into something of light. The act of painting is how I find peace amidst it all, a way of coming into the perfection of pure awareness. Devoid of ego, I remember that we are all connected. As human beings we are a global community. I wish to create pause in the rational mind of the viewer, to open their heart to both the beauty and the suffering of the world. Like the lotus which blossoms from mud, we have the power to create change.

With this artwork I honor the light in me, which shines within all beings and all things.