Amber Johnston
Artist Statement

Wealthy bipartisan congressmen have been voting to dramatically raise the military budget since the Cold War began and it has continued to rise steadily ever since. As a result public schools have suffered greatly, unable to afford pencils, free milk or art classes. The lack of emphasis on a good education has caused the continuation and the worsening of poverty. Our government seems to overlook the effect of our massive military budget, $741 billion in 2006, on the poverty crisis we have in our own country. The people most affected have lost their faith in government and the hope of rising out of the ghetto. I see the results of this everyday teaching underprivileged kids.

As an artist I feel it is part of my duty to question peoples stereotypes, to show the misfortunate, for whatever reason, as an equal to the viewer. I do not want to exploit them by showing their dilapidated homes or revealing their income. I have used a white backdrop, to remove their physical environment, leaving the viewer no reference to their situation. Their physicality emulates the missing landscape, telling the same narrative with greater intensity. I have avoided traditional composition of portraiture by cropping, drawing the viewer to their eyes, so one can read the stories told there without distraction.