A billboard that just went up near the corner of Western and Ohio shows a photographic image of a hand, thumb and index finger extended, pointing at a pair of hands held up defensively. “Can You Argue With a Gun?” the sign says in black letters. “Don’t Think So!”
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Engelstad, who divides her time between Dallas and Chicago, has been in town since January coordinating Peace Signs, which is part of a larger antigun art project, Visualizing Violence, that she started in San Francisco three years ago with follow-ups in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. All of the projects have matched artists and designers with mostly at-risk youths, and all of them have explored violence in the nation’s schools and on its streets. The projects have also been accompanied by workshops, forums, and vigils intended to spark dialogue within communities and teach kids about nonviolent conflict resolution.
Most important, says Englestad, “Students who usually have little or no voice in the reporting and analysis of this subject are given the opportunity to speak to their peers and to the general public through the creation of public artwork. With a project like this–hopefully, on a small scale–they get to tell their own story. The artist acts as a collaborator and as a mentor and helps them hone their ideas.”
The teens also studied the fundamentals of graphic design, then were carefully matched with artists. Engelstad says it’s never been difficult to persuade artists to get involved in her projects. “I say, ‘It’s a way for you to give back–you don’t have to write a check. It’s a way for you to take a couple hours a week for a couple months out of your life and work one-on-one with somebody and contribute.’ Most everyone says, ‘Yeah, that sounds great.’ Almost every artist learns something, and a lot of them continue the relationship afterward.”
Lill Street artist Rozlyn Adams and Naomi Medina, the 17-year-old Clemente High School student with whom she was paired, both had close friends killed by guns. Their billboard, at 80th and Western, looks like a movie poster, with painted images of a gun and chalked body outlines splotched with blood. It says, “Coming Soon…to a Neighborhood Near You?”
