This was a small portion of the actual image on the wall. I wanted to make the child androgynous. It struck me as being so incredible sad but quite beautiful. It also struck me at that moment how a child still learning the way of the world would feel the first time they encountered racism - confused, sad, upset and not wanted. Any child of any race would feel the same way the first time they are discriminated against for no inherent reason.

I played around with adding color and shapes to this picture to emphasis the eyes and lips. All the other elements in the image were present when I took the photograph.