ICE Melts Under Resistance

My 40 x 40 inch oil painting synthesizes the impact ICE has on the people of the United States and its conflict with the intrinsically American principles of due process, equal protection, and the protections of one's civil liberties. The painting, titled ICE Melts Under Resistance, features an ice cube with the U.S flag trapped in the center, along with the faces of several people trapped in ice, out of the actual hundreds of thousands that ICE has persecuted in the last year alone. This piece delves into the impact that ICE has on the people and culture it brutalizes through jarring visual symbolism representing the bind ICE has on American liberties. The title is a frequently featured statement in the national protests resisting ICE raids and their presence in communities. ICE raids shatter families, foster mistrust and fear in our neighborhoods, and break the binding of communities by defining what it means to be American under an exclusionary, nationalist and racist separatist ideal. The cruelty conducted by ICE is anti-America, a nation built on intersectionality and the promise of liberty for all people. The title of this work assists in the interpretation, as it calls into attention that while ICE feels like an all consuming, post-democratic threat against the most marginalized communities within the U.S, nothing can survive the heat of continued community action and resistance for our neighbors.