When artist Davian Chester, 26, woke up and realized that Google didn’t create a Google Doodle to celebrate Juneteenth, he decided to sketch his own version of what the image should’ve looked like.
According to Google’s website: Doodles are the fun, surprising, and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists.
Because of Them We Can spoke with Chester to learn more about his inspiration behind the poignant art work which features a Black person’s hands breaking free of shackles. In it he used the broken chain to form the word “Google.”
“I feel it’s very important for us to know as much as we can about our ancestors. So I feel Juneteenth is already something that isn’t being spread across as much as it should be. I was planning on making an art piece for it anyway, but I noticed Google did not do anything at all. And for a large company like that to create doodles for literally everything under the sun and have nothing at all today, I thought it was odd.”
Instead of ignoring the oversight, Chester viewed it as an opportunity.
“I always wanted to create a Google Doodle anyway. So I took matters into my own hands.”
The image has been shared across social media thousands of times prompting people to talk about what Juneteenth means. While others have questioned Google about the miss, we believe Davian’s talent and proactive approach puts him in position to create the official Juneteenth Google Doodle for the company next year.
To see more of Davian’s work visit his Instagram page at real_toons.