Weight of the World by Sarah Mizzi

A painting.

About this project: "The piece uses Monte Mart oil paints and the subject matter contains a black woman with the earth as her Afro. It was inspired oddly by when I was on my travels and had seen someone who stuck a luggage tag onto them self. I had first conjured the image of a woman with post stamps covering her all over. Somehow it evolved into a woman holding the weight of the world on her head. The saying was what stuck in my mind as I had first sketched it then put it onto canvas. People of colour are often featured in my pieces and so I thought that it was appropriate for the subject matter to be a woman of colour, to represent the unity of the world."

Scroll down to see this entry and to find out more about the contributing artist.

Painting entry

About the artist: "I am Sarah Mizzi, a half Filipino and half Australian artist in my second year of university, studying a double major in Japanese and Applied Linguistics. When it comes to art I am self-taught and have mainly created portraiture and works which have to do with the LGBT+ community and people of colour. I have previously created a portrait series called ‘Tattered Pride’ which was displayed in an exhibition and have been posting my art on my Instagram account @sdm_creations which also displays other personal pieces as well."

We asked, our artists answered: why does creativity matter now?  "Art currently offers an escape from the current events, however it also personally allows me to address my own view and response to what has been going on in the world. With the events of the Black Lives Matter protests, seeing people unite and advocate for social and political change all over the world gave me further inspiration towards finishing this piece and sharing it with others. Art allowed me to creatively challenge myself to make a contribution towards the history that is being made through the Black Lives Matter movement."