Hemorrhage

Maternal health is an important predictor for a society’s health overall. In Zimbabwe, a major cause of maternal mortality is loss of blood due to hemorrhage. This charcoal drawing creates a visceral impact of the word hemorrhage to symbolize issues in this field. The word begins with neatly stenciled letters, but as the word continues, the letters start to rotate and deform until the letters become almost unreadable. The image creates a feeling of the sadness, desperation, and rapid loss of control associated with hemorrhage.

Artist

Phyllis Pawa (2016)

Artist Lens

We decided to focus on hemorrhage because when I studied Zimbabwe for this class, I noticed that one of the biggest issues was women dying of hemorrhages. Tom helped me try to figure out a way to depict that. He got me stencils so I could write out all the letters. I drew lines to cut it into four pieces to figure out how to show what a hemorrhage is. That was really hard to do since there are so many aspects to it. 

I figured since I only have one color, I would have to use that to my advantage. The only other thing I could do was move the letters themselves. I spent a lot of time practicing because I really wanted to get it right. Eventually, it slowly came together. I don't know if I was originally planning on coloring the paper around it. I think it was partially that I kept smudging charcoal everywhere and eventually, I found, “oh, that actually works for what this means.”

I think people liked the work because it had a really strong message. I’m not someone who can draw something very complex, but it allowed me to still draw something with meaning. I wanted what I did to have meaning, but I couldn’t find that in doing art class. This let me blend the two and people seemed to see that.

Media

Charcoal

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