Anthony Kirk’s piece, “Stilled Life,” is a message about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. (Courtesy of Anthony Kirk)

WOODBURY — Twelve years: That is how long people have been mourning the losses of the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Everyone has the memories of Dec. 14, 2012 flooding back to them. So many people show how they truly feel about the situation and the circumstances, one of those being Scottish master printmaker, teacher, and curator of the art show, Anthony Kirk.

Earlier this spring, Kirk put a piece of his art — “Stilled Lives” — into his show about printmaking at the Washington Art Association. In this piece, it showed children’s alphabet blocks, spelling out the name Wayne LaPierre, who was a powerful vice president of the National Rifle Association. He was for the use of guns and protecting the right to bear arms. Kirk thought this name was perfect for his gun control piece.

“After the massacre of children and teachers by a lone gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Wayne LaPierre’s simplistic solution to thwart the bad guys in schools with guns is to have more good guys in schools with guns,” Kirk wrote.

Kirk also explained how children and parents should be able to go to school and feel safe and get home. This piece was his way of using his voice to help.

A handful of Woodbury Middle School teachers and staff were shown the piece, and their reactions all followed similarly. They were all somehow connected to Sandy Hook and explained their stories of that day.

“[My] very best friend’s child, Dylan, was killed at Sandy Hook,” explained Aimee Shuhart, the library media specialist at Woodbury Middle School.

Shuhart talked about the shock of the day, and how much disbelief she had felt that something like this could happen, and she also stated that the anniversary was just the same amount of emotions, filled with terror, and sadness.

“I think that the meaning is immediately clear to me,” she explained. “He’s kind of playing with the idea of childhood, and fun, and beginning of learning, and those building blocks of success for the rest of your life are shattered.”

Math interventionist Helen Sperry also saw the print from Kirk. She explained how on Dec. 14, 2012, she was teaching, and students kept telling her that this just happened. Continuing the trend, she also felt heartbroken and solemn once she realized what had happened.

“Seeing that they’re alphabet blocks, there’s 26 of them, 26 letters in the alphabet, and that’s how many lives were cut short that day at the school,” said Sperry.

Once shown this piece of artwork, many people felt a mix of sadness and remembrance of the anniversary and the actual tragedy. This piece shows how much people still mourn about the things that happen in the past. So many more of these things are happening today, and it affects everyone. It affects the teachers, and it has never stopped.

When things like this happen, it can be damaging. Some people are able to show how they feel about the situation, and get their feelings out to the public. But others are not the same way, and this shows that people can be struggling from the past 10 years after something happens. These are all important things that can’t be overlooked or forgotten about because they affect so many people everywhere.