Unity = Equality by Lyla Paakkanen

What Makes America Great

Each Creative Action Network poster is hand-printed and handled to make sure that only the highest quality is offered and sent out. The sturdy matte paper and premium inks create a vibrant, museum-quality image that looks great both framed and unframed. Posters are printed in Los Angeles, CA on Epson Enhanced Matte Paper heavyweight stock, with a wide color gamut and Epson UltraChrome HDR ink-jet technology. The framed poster arrives wrapped in a protective yet lightweight black frame and includes a shatter-resistant acrylite front protector that won't break during shipping. International orders may be subject to customs duties & taxes. 

Proceeds Support:
Proceeds support DreamCorps, a social justice accelerator founded by Van Jones that advances economic, environmental, and criminal justice solutions. What Makes America Great is a collection of designs celebrating the things that our artists believe make America truly great.

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Design By: Lyla Paakkanen
Lyla Paakkanen

Lyla Paakkanen lives in Sacramento, where the Pony Express ended its route. She is a freelance artist and illustrator, has a Master’s Degree in Art from CSUN, Communications Design from UCLA. She taught art at 5 colleges and has won many awards in California and Colorado for her work.

 

Design By: Lyla Paakkanen
Lyla Paakkanen

Lyla Paakkanen lives in Sacramento, where the Pony Express ended its route. She is a freelance artist and illustrator, has a Master’s Degree in Art from CSUN, Communications Design from UCLA. She taught art at 5 colleges and has won many awards in California and Colorado for her work.

 

Artist Statement

America is a collections of very diverse people, all with their own stories and cultural backgrounds. The thing that makes this United States of America so great is the fact that we are so united in our diversity. Children know this. They have no problem, when they are very young, accepting that we are all equal, all the same and diverse at the same time.. One child may have dark hair and another light, but they can still be best friends. It is only as a child grows older that differences may be important, that some may be taught that others who are different are less than themselves. When considering ideas for this design, I came back to the idea of how children are so easy to accept each other. It was a child, a young girl, not from this country, who spoke of the rights that she could not enjoy, the rights that we in this country enjoy, in our unity, in our diversity that makes our country so great. "I speak not for myself but for those without voice... those who have fought for their rights... their right to live in peace, their right to be treated with dignity, their right to equality of opportunity, their right to be educated." Malala Yousafzai — Lyla Paakkanen