Work in Progress: What is it about? On the top left, is an image of Mohamed Bouazizi in the moment of self-immolation in protest of the governing system. The choice to literally burn yourself out in protest raises questions of agency, determination, free choice, and despair. This image spread like fire all over social media(which was rather new in 2010), bypassing the censored main media, organizing and calling people out to the streets, huge protests that lasted for months erupted all over Tunisia and across the world. (You may remember Occupy Wall Street, for example. In the bigger rectangle, Bouazizi is seen in his hospital bed, in his very last hours of life, he is surrounded by hospital staff and politicians. The man in the black suit on the left is Tunisia’s then-president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. In the days that followed this hospital visit, he was forced to resign, disappear underground, and later flee to Saudi Arabia. In the foreground is a mother-like figure holding a child. The woman is gazing at the hospital scene/painting. As a mother myself, I imagine the mother looking at this and thinking, what future does my child have in this kind of world? As well as, what can I, as a mother whose hands are literally full 24/7, actually do to better the situation? The child is the only one looking at the viewer, as if turning to us for answers or just a connection. On the right-hand side, In Juxtaposition (physically parallel to the figure in the hospital bed) is an elderly figure. She has a book on her lap, a symbol of wisdom (like the owl, btw, the little boy’s toy). She is either lightly playing with balloons or blessing us peacefully, like the pope’s famous gesture. The intensity of the struggles in the picture doesn’t draw in her gaze. She is aging in peace. Above her, we have an open window to nature, another fire, a daily sunset, nature doing its thing, as a third rectangle within the painting's rectangle. The two rectangular images within the paper are stuck to the wall with duct tape, and are meant to look like a painting in progress So hopefully it’s clear that there is an Artist present in the room. With this, I hope to add the gaze and action of “the artist” to all the gazes in this composition. I wonder what the power of art is in caring for society? Does it matter where the artist chooses to focus their gaze? And if it does, should a caring artist focus on the beauty of the world? joy and hopes? the horrors and atrocities? Where is the Artist's impact in relation to the Activists, Politicians, doctors, and mothers in the world?