Time asks artist for her Kiwi response
A Wellington artist whose work in response to the mosque shootings was shared internationally has been commissioned by Time magazine to illustrate its international April 1 cover.
Ruby Jones’ artwork depicting two women embracing – one a Muslim wearing a hijab – with the message, ‘This is your home and you should have been safe here’, went worldwide after the attacks.
Since then, Time contacted the 25-year-old, to ‘‘capture the feeling from inside her country in the days following the terrorist attack’’, it said.
‘‘They just reached out to me earlier in the week and said they saw that first drawing and asked if I would be interested in doing a cover for the story on Christchurch, so obviously I said yes,’’ Jones said.
‘‘I was definitely in a bit of disbelief. This sounds terrible, but at the same time it was also amongst hundreds of emails, so I was like, ‘Woah, this means a lot’, but at the same time I was processing a thousand other things. I know it’s an enormous deal, but at the time it hadn’t really registered how big it was.’’
Jones said the magazine gave her an idea of what the story would be about, but ‘‘pretty much let me have full control’’ over the design.
‘‘I think I just wanted to do something that was really soft and peaceful and was going to symbolise togetherness. I feel like that’s what we need right now.’’
The cover includes 50 stars, one representing each victim.
It also features roses, which Jones said symbolised ‘‘going to a new area, new growth of just love and acceptance’’.
The response to both pieces had been ‘‘completely overwhelming’’, she said. Jones had received letters from across the world in response to her artwork – ‘‘most of which have made me cry.
‘‘I’ve been drawing for my whole life and then suddenly a whole lot of people are paying attention . . . It’s really special. I feel so honoured.’’
Jones felt people resonated with her work because of its softness and vulnerability. ‘‘Maybe it’s just what people need right now – something really simple but loving, just showing human connection really.
‘‘I’ve always been fascinated by human relationships, our connection with one another and the world. I think people just find joy in seeing that closeness and love depicted in an image.’’ Jones’ original drawing was left by mourners at memorials and printed on posters all around New Zealand. is a weekly American news magazine published in New York. It has the world’s largest circulation for a weekly news magazine.