From Trauma to Hope

More than 48,000 people died of gun-related injuries in the United States in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and firearm injuries—including suicide, homicide, and unintentional injuries—were the leading cause of death among children and teens ages one to nineteen. 

From the trauma and destruction firearms can cause, can healing and beauty be found? A North Carolina artist who will visit RIT next week offers a chance for reflection and hope. 

“My work specifically engages transmuting instruments of violence into the more subtle tools of communication. I am grounded in my practice knowing that, in a very small way, I am part of shifting the world away from reactionary harm and more towards the slow and contemplative. Herein I find beauty,” explained ink and pigment maker and artist Thomas Little in a recent interview with American Craft Magazine. 

Little dissolves iron from guns to produce ink and pigment that he and other artists can use to write, draw, and create.  

During his presentation “Danger and Hope in the U.S.— a Workshop and Demo” on Tuesday, October 24, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., Little will explain his pigment making process, give a demonstration, and offer participants a chance to write with his "gun ink" to create a reflective work they can keep. Additionally, students from COMM 374 Opinion Media will share written excerpts of their reflective essays on the theme of “Danger – and Hope? – in the U.S.”

Open to all RIT students, faculty, and staff, this event is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts, School of Communication, (Journalism Program), School of Individualized Studies, English Department, Criminal Justice Department (Center for Public Safety Initiatives), Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, and the Vignelli Center for Design Studies.

Light refreshments will be served. To make an interpreting or real-time captioning request, please contact RIT’s Department of Access Services.

Learn more about the event >

A Beretta handgun undergoes the process of becoming decomposed to produce Little's writing ink. At his workshop and demo on October 24, Little will explain his process and participants will have a chance to write with the ink. (Images supplied by Thomas Little.)