“Mom, I’m OK!” is something I’ve said countless times in my eighteen years of existence. It’s a phrase that requires little thought and automatically comes out of my mouth. I’ve never given it much thought until yesterday, when I first saw the photograph “Mom We’re OK” on our trip to the ICP.

I didn’t think much of the picture when I first laid eyes on it. All I noticed was eight horizontal, alternating layers of black and white rows with a bunch of skinnier, vertical rows at the center. The picture bored me. I thought it was meant to be some fancy geometric picture, and that’s when I noticed three blue words, “Mom we’re OK,” on one of the white rows. After further analysis of the picture, things finally made sense to me. I realized that I was looking at the side of a beat up building. The white rows were balconies, and the dark rows were the windows of the building I was looking at. The three strange words on the side of the building appeared to be spray painted on a while ago- some of the paint appeared to be dripping down and fading.

At that moment, the image’s strength struck me. I could hardly fathom why someone would write that on the side of a building. I tried to come up with a story to go with the photograph, but everything I thought of was too emotionally taxing. I chose to write about this picture because I think it’s a good microcosm for what good art should be for everyone.

Good art should make people inquire about the circumstances under which it was created. It should make people question, study, and create interpretations of their own.

Overall, I enjoyed my visit to the ICP. I especially liked the exhibits on the first floor. Some of the pictures, like the one of a woman smoking crack and the one of a man on a gurney smoking a cigarette, were so obscure that I couldn’t possibly imagine them happening in real life! I also enjoyed the exhibits on the bottom floor. Something about seeing men at work made me feel connected to America and understand that true heroes are the people that work hard every day to make better the lives of other people. Because the two floors were so different, I learned that there are many ways people can express themselves. I can’t wait to see more throughout the semester!