NBCLX asked artists from across the country to create re-imagined “I Voted” stickers for the 2020 election. The latest artist we’re spotlighting is Brittney Price, an artist and muralist from Los Angeles.
Price wanted her sticker to grab the viewers’ attention and focus them on the seriousness of this year’s election. She talked to NBCLX storyteller Cody Broadway about why she feels such a sense of urgency about voting and how this quote by Justin Dart inspired her: “Vote as if your life depended on it, because it does.”
You can find Price’s art on Instagram at @brittneysprice. To find and share her digital sticker and our entire collection of artist-created "I Voted" stickers, search “LXtion2020” on Giphy.
This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Price: Hello, my name is Brittney Price. I am a fine artist and muralist in Los Angeles, California.
Broadway: So what does your art consist of?
Price: My art consists of what's going on in my life at the moment, to be perfectly honest. There is joyous art, there is art that will make you laugh, there's art that will make you think, there's art that will make you feel. It's just whatever is in my brain at that moment, in my heart at that moment.
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Broadway: What's in your heart and mind right now?
Price: In my heart and my mind at the moment is this current election and the severity of it, the importance of it, and trying to figure out a way to get more Black and brown people at the polls and to actually take action, because are our voices, our votes do count and they do matter and we can make a difference.
Broadway: Let's talk about the sticker that you are currently working on.
Price: I'm currently working on an "I Voted" sticker. The sticker means so much to me. I came across this quote online... The quote is: "Vote as if your life depended on it." And I want people to take that message seriously. I want them to take it with importance. I want them to take that message and have some action behind it. Really, my "I Voted" sticker is a call to action. And it's really a way of me showing visually how imperative, how life or death this vote can be. We're literally being slain as Black and brown people, we're being kept in cages as Black and brown people. And there needs to be a change within our system, a fundamental change. And right now, the way things are, it just can't sustain much longer. And so we need to have more people, more Black and brown people that care about our lives making decisions for us.
Broadway: Walk me through the design.
Price: So I did some research and I really wanted to look at the "I Voted" stickers that were currently up on Instagram, currently up on Facebook. And a lot of them are super cute... And I just really wanted to do something that was going to make people think – that's going to be like, this means something. This has a message.
Price: So when designing this "I Voted" sticker, I wanted to keep in line with the cuteness of it as far as the aesthetic. I wanted to make sure that… it wasn't too serious at first glance. And so I wanted to make sure that I stayed within a very simplified color palette, and a simplified character as well. So I have a female Black character showing that she is hooked up to life support. Now there is a life support machine and it says “vote.” … And the design is just showing the severity of what a vote can do and what not voting can do. So that was my design concept. And visually, it's still something that you would find on IG. But I feel like it has a heart. It has a soul. It has a message. It has purpose. And it's a call to action.
Broadway: Given the current circumstances, COVID-19 attacking Black communities – I feel like your design kind of speaks to that as well.
Price: Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to touch on the female being hooked up to a machine…. It's an image that we've become familiar with with COVID-19 – with people, our family, our loved ones, hooked up to respirators. And I honestly feel that the way that this administration has handled the pandemic is a reason why we need to get out and vote – to make sure that we aren't losing lives unnecessarily. So I wanted to make sure that I had a Black female – because for whatever reason, this virus is attacking Black and brown communities in disproportionate ratios. And so it is our duty to go ahead and try – or at least attempt to change this and use our power by voting to protect our communities.
Broadway: What makes this project different?
Price: The difference in this project and a lot of my projects as of late is really just being community-centric. I really want my pieces to speak for my community. I want my pieces to celebrate my community, as well as inform, as well as uplift my community. And this "I Voted" sticker is a celebration of all of that. It's representation for us. And a call to action… Because the power is really in our hands.
Broadway: What do you want people to get out of this story?
Price: What I want people to get out of this story is that we're not undefeated, that there is hope, that if we put our minds together and we take action, that we can change the situation we're in. That's my hope.