Geometric Forms as Visual Language for Social Justice Narratives
Throughout history, artists have used visual storytelling to express the social issues, challenges, and questions of their time. The Captivity Series continues this tradition by introducing three animal silhouettes—bear, duck, and turtle—as symbolic figures confronting abstract barriers. Each piece presents a moment where the animal faces an obstruction that may or may not have a clear solution, echoing the real-world tensions of social pressure, inequality, belonging, and self-worth. Rather than depicting the answer, the artwork presents the problem visually, encouraging viewers to consider how individuals move through issues that confine, isolate, or silence them. The three designs form the foundation of a larger conceptual world in which each animal becomes an icon for its theme, with these originals initiating the broader conversation about how personal and societal barriers shape lived experience.
The Process
The Captivity Series was created digitally using Illustrator, Adobe Color, and AI tools, though its origin lies in a hands-on craft technique. Bear in Captivity was first imagined during a quilting project inspired by Shannon Brinkley’s Scrappy Appliqué method, where overlapping scraps form a collage trimmed into a final silhouette. The original barricade concept proved too complex to execute in fabric, but the digital approach allowed the idea to evolve, leading to the three artworks that define the series.
Each piece features a unique geometric backdrop paired with an animal silhouette and a specific barricade overlay. Though the geometries harmonize visually as a group, each environment reflects the theme tied to the animal.
Bear in Captivity is built on a vibrant arrangement of purple, orange, and pink tiles that radiate warmth and welcome. Across this inviting space stretches a stark white barricade of thin lines and rough circles, representing social barriers that restrict belonging or acceptance. In the lower left corner, the small purple bear sits in quiet isolation, facing a world that is colorful but seemingly unreachable. The expanded scene deepens the tension between isolation and community: the bear confronts the struggle of shifting from coldness to warmth, from exclusion to connection, and from small ideas to larger visions. The piece visualizes the effort required to break through stigmas, social hierarchies, or assumptions that render someone an outsider. The bear’s posture conveys endurance and belief in self, even when the path to acceptance is uncertain.
Duck in Resilience introduces long overlapping trapezoids that mimic the directional flow of feathers, forming a landscape of change, motion, and emotional turbulence. Vertical wavy lines overlay the shapes like reeds in a pond, creating a sense of obstruction and confinement. The duck stands calmly within the chaos, holding its position amid the push and pull of external pressure. The expanded depiction highlights the central theme of resisting groupthink and maintaining identity when confronted with conformity, peer pressure, or shifting social currents. The duck’s steady profile symbolizes self-worth and stability, choosing personal integrity over the ease of merging with the crowd.
Turtle Shell uses a palette of teal, turquoise, browns, oranges, and yellows arranged in layered geometric shapes that suggest the richness and variety of life. In front of this vibrant landscape appears a barricade patterned like an exaggerated turtle shell, representing a barrier shaped by self-comparison and the belief that one’s own qualities are lesser or less colorful than those around them. The turtle stands before this patterned obstruction confronting the internal struggle of defining self-worth by external standards. At the same time, the piece acknowledges the reverse—that others may also overlook or misjudge the turtle’s value until they come to know it more deeply. The design reflects how both self-perception and outside perception can create limits, and how those limits shift once understanding grows. The turtle’s quiet stance captures the moment before that transformation, suggesting that when comparison fades and true qualities are recognized—both by oneself and by others—the barrier begins to fall away, revealing the uniqueness everyone carries.
Together, the three digital works explore how individuals confront barriers—social, emotional, or structural—and how those barriers shape identity, belonging, and the search for connection.
Inspiration & Meaning
The Captivity Series presents questions rather than conclusions. Each piece reflects a different facet of the struggle between confinement and possibility, acknowledging how personal and societal forces attempt to limit movement, expression, or acceptance. Bear in Captivity speaks to isolation, resilience, and the longing for community. Duck in Resilience addresses the pressures of groupthink and the challenge of maintaining self-worth amid adversity. Turtle Shell celebrates uniqueness and the shift from comparison to self-acceptance, acknowledging how understanding—both internal and external—can dissolve barriers. The series invites viewers to consider how awareness, connection, or personal courage might transform these barriers, offering space for reflection on how one moves from captivity toward opportunity.
See Bear in Captivity Series
See Bear in Captivity, Turtle Shell, Duck in Resilience.
