Caitlin Flynn

Phillips 

English 101

25 April 2016

 "Lady Liberty"

Visual images are seen all over in every day life, whether it is an advertisement, music video, movie or painting. All types of visual images are used to tell a story, to get a point across and to catch the eye of the viewer. The mural "Lady Liberty Crying", is a piece of street art in Harlem painted by an unknown artist, in response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11th, 2011. The mural features the Statue of Liberty crying tears of blood, with the view of the stormy New York City skyline in the background. The placement of the image, as well as the artist's use symbolism and color depicts a solemn sadness the city of New York felt after the attacks. 

The artist uses the common image of the Statue of Liberty as the main focus of the mural. The Statue of Liberty is symbolic of freedom, opportunity and new beginnings. Lady Liberty is used as one of the most well known symbols of America, a land built on the ideal of freedom. By painting the Statue of Liberty with a face filled with pain and by having her crying, it represents the hurt and pain Americans felt after a terrorist attack on their home soil. The attacks compromised many people's views of America as being a place full of freedom and free of threat. The Statue of Liberty is now painted with the sadness in her eyes because she feels as though her once united, strong willed land has now been hurt in the vicious attacks. The attacks were so unexpected and a direct hit to one of the greatest cities in the world. The artist uses a stormy, uneven and cloudy New York City skyline as the background of the mural. New York City is seen as a land of opportunity, filled with millions of people. New York City is one of the world's most well known places, and is filled with all different types of people from all walks of life. By painting the skyline stormy, it is symbolic of the rocky aftermath of the attacks on the city. The city did not know where to start the clean up of this atrocity and how to unite the city together to begin to recover. For the following days, weeks and months, the city streets were filled with debris and clean up crews. Windows, buildings, and electric poles were covered in "Missing Person" fliers posted by families hoping to find their missing loved ones. Unfortunately, for many families, the damage had already been done and they had lost their loved one. So many people who lived in New York or the surrounding area had some sort of connection to the attacks. The stormy, dark night sky is symbolic of the pain and suffering the city of New York and all those affected by the attacks experienced in the aftermath. Since it has only been about 15 years since the attacks, it is still a fresh wound in American history and the lives of all of those affected. 

The artist decided to paint the Statue of Liberty's tears as tears of blood. The tears of blood are symbolic of the violence measure of the attacks. Almost 3,000 people were killed in New York, including workers in the World Trade Center, emergency workers and those on the two planes that were flown into both towers. The blood represents the high death toll and the savagery of the terrorists. By using these tears of blood as the tears of the Statue of Liberty, she now is not the picture of freedom, but the picture of death and pain. America was once seen as this supreme untouchable force, but it has now experienced a personal attack. The artist of the mural also decided to paint the Twin Towers in the skyline where they previously stood. They are painted in front of the skyline and in a different color to make them more noticeable. The Twin Towers were painted larger and dominating over the rest of the buildings, just as they sat in the New York City skyline when they still stood tall. The Twin Towers were built to dominate the skyline, and were an identifying mark of the NYC skyline. The ghostly look of the Twin Towers is now symbolic of how even though the attacks happened not too long ago, it is time to learn how to move forward and take the necessary steps to make sure something like this is never experienced again. 

The artist uses specific colors in the mural that are meant to catch the attention of the viewer and help the viewer feel the somberness the painting is supposed to give off. Red is a reoccurring color throughout the mural because of the association red has with hatred, violence, death and anger. The adding of red in the New York City skyline is used to represent the extreme violence and death used in the attacks. It is also used to represent the anger Americans had towards terrorist groups in the aftermath. One of the biggest issues after the attacks was who to blame for them. Very quickly the United States was able to blame Al Qaeda, an Islamic extremist terrorist group, responsible for all the attacks pulled off throughout the United States that day. The red colors in the mural also represents al Qaeda's belief that violence is the only way to get their point and personal beliefs across. They thrive on inflicting death, pain and instilling fear in the people and places they attack ("9/11 Memorial"). The bigger the damage, the more successful they were in their plan. The color black is also used as most of the background of the mural. Black is a color used to represent darkness, death and pain. The city of New York, as well as the rest of the country, now had a dark event to deal with. The attacks put a damper on the country as a whole. The attacks were now a dark spot in American history, and are not be a forgotten part in history. Many families experienced a death as a result of the attacks, and now lived with pain. Many did not know how to cope with one the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil ("9/11 Memorial").  White is a color most commonly used to represent purity and light. The artist painted the Twin Towers in white to represent its now ghostly presence on the city of New York. Even though the Towers are not there anymore, there is still some sort of ghostly presence in the spot they used to be. There are now two reflecting pools where the towers used to stand for visitors and loved ones to reflect on what had happened on September 11th ("9/11 Memorial"). The towers painted in white also represents the innocence of those who perished. Most of the people who were killed on the day of the attacks were just doing their job, something their used to doing day to day. The attacks were not personal to anyone killed, it was a random attack. Of the almost 3,000 killed in New York, around 300 of those were emergency workers. This included firefighters, policemen, and EMTs. The emergency workers made the ultimate sacrifice and put their lives on the line to help others, a selfless and heroic act. These emergency responders, as well as those who worked in the World Trade Center were innocent people, which is why the color white was chosen to represent those killed. The numerous spurts of white also painted in the sky is used to represent these lost innocent lives, now angelically in the sky looking over the city they worked and died in.

The location of the mural may just make it seem like another piece of city street art, but it is symbolic. New York City is a place littered with graffiti, and a common place for graffiti and street artists to attempt to start a conversation with more controversial pieces. This specific piece of art was painted on the side of a building in Harlem, a Manhattan neighborhood. Harlem has a rich history, and is a neighborhood that adds culture and life to the city. By putting it in Harlem, the street artists' choice of location was to try to get it to spark a conversation. It is large in size and put in comparison to typical, insignificant graffiti. It is meant to get people on the street to stop and look at it, the purpose of most visual forms of images. The mural is supposed to make people stop and reflect on the course of 9/11 and its' impact on the city. Also, since graffiti is hard to remove and it normally remains until it fades away, it is symbolic of the impact of the World Trade Center on the city of New York, the country and the rest of the world. The graffiti may fade, and people may pass by without taking a second look on the mural, but it will always be there. The Twin Towers may no longer be standing tall, but it will always be in the back of New Yorker's minds. 

The terrorist attacks on September 11th had a huge impact on the United States, with New York City experiencing the largest loss of life. The mural of Lady Liberty crying is meant to make the viewer reflect somberly on the brutal attacks of September 11th and to help understand the pain most experienced. The artist of the mural uses symbolism and the use of color to help illustrate a solemn sadness the city of New York felt after the attacks on the Word Trade Center on that one Tuesday in September. 

Works Cited

"Harlem Mural - Lady Liberty Crying." Flickr. Yahoo!, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

"National September 11 Memorial & Museum | World Trade Center Memorial." National September 11 Memorial & Museum | World Trade Center Memorial. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
