Art Blog #37

Focus on an artwork - 'America is a Gun' by Laurie Lipton and it's subject matter gun violence in the USA

Art details:

'America is a Gun'

Laurie Lipton

Archival pigment print on Moab Entrada

Bright White 300 gsm paper.

Paper 23 × 30.75", image 21.3 × 29.75"

Edition number: 65

All signed, titled and numbered by the artist

About the Artist

Laurie Lipton was born in New York and began drawing at the age of four. She was the first person to graduate from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pennsylvania with a Fine Arts Degree in Drawing (with honours).

She has lived in Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, the UK and has recently moved to Los Angeles after 36 years abroad.

Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout Europe and the USA.

Gun Violence in the USA

(Some facts)

• Gun violence is a term of political, economic and sociological interest referring to the tens of thousands of annual firearms-related deaths and injuries occurring in the United States.

• In 2016, a U.S. male aged 15–24 was 70 times more likely to be killed with a gun than a French male or British male

• In 2022, up to 100 daily fatalities and hundreds of daily injuries were attributable to gun violence in the United States.

• The Congressional Research Service in 2009 estimated that among US population of 306 million people, there were 310 million firearms in the U.S., not including military armaments.

Of these, 114 million were handguns, 110 million were rifles, and 86 million were shotguns.

• Some medical professionals express concern regarding the prevalence and growth of gun violence in America, even comparing gun violence in the United States to a disease or epidemic.

• Relatedly, recent polling suggests up to 26% of Americans believe guns are the number one national public health threat.

Various Sources