Honorable Mention - Open Division
The Cooper Family
Oklahoma City, OK
They Shaped History, So Can You
Our family consists of four generations. Of these, three generations worked on the collage: a set of grandparents, two daughters and a husband, a nephew, and one grandson. When we first began designing the collage, everybody agreed that whatever we did, we wanted it to be a positive message. Which is a daunting task, considering today's political scene! So instead of focusing on specific political parties, we focused on faces from the history of Oklahoma: notable figures from the times of Oklahoma Territory, Theodore Roosevelt signing Oklahoma into statehood, and then images from the last century. We found a few surprises, like when we got to tease our die-hard GOP uncle about Democrats ruling the list of Oklahoma's governors from statehood until the 1960's.
But how could we make the collage be relevant to the present time? That's when we came up with the really positive aspect of our collage- the voting images. Hopefully, these will remind people that if there's something they don't like about today's politics, they have the ability to do something about it.
And as we searched through "voting history", we also began to see views of those who had to struggle to earn the right to vote. Once again, we found ourselves pulled back into history, learning about the Suffragettes and Jim Crow voting laws. Now we all feel it is even more important to urge people to vote, run for office, or somehow take part in the issues that impact their lives.
The campaign buttons started as an idea for filling in gaps between pictures, but as we put more on, they became the kids' favorite part of the collage. Grandson Kyle also sneaked a tiny copy of the front of a pizza box from sponsor Hideaway Pizza into the midst of some of the campaign buttons. Also added were several quotes, one from Will Rogers: "I don't know jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts" and one from Ghandi: "Be the change you wish to see in the world".
Because the collage took several days to complete, we realized that not everyone would be able to sign the back, so we decided to "sign" it with a copy of one of our oldest family photos instead. The Cooper family's great great grandparents founded a homestead in Marlow, Oklahoma during one of the land runs, which still exists today. This is a photo of the farmhouse after it was built. Our common great grandpa is one of the children (the one in the white dress, he was probably glad there weren't a lot more family snapshots).
We hope our collage will be entertaining, and that it will remind people that they can be part of history themselves. Maybe it will spark a discussion about how to participate in current events (like these collages!).
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