"A Helping Hand" was submitted to the 2021 Symbols of Hope art contest by Emily Comstock from Classen SAS Middle.

"Many of us feel hopeless and trapped at times, and sometimes it takes a helping hand to change that. With this artwork, I wanted to express that it’s okay to reach out for help, or accept help from others. The girl is in a blank, or gray, state of mind. She’s being pulled out of the darkness, and into a world full of color. As she’s coming into a world full of color, she begins to take color herself. Sometimes, we get trapped in a world without color, where everything’s the same and it seems hopeless. After you’ve become numb to a world without color, you can’t imagine a world full of color, or hope and happiness, so it takes a helping hand to show you there’s hope. A world full of colors is a world of diversity, and without colors, or diversity, the world would be boring and gray."

• Paper thickness: 10.3 mil
• Paper weight: 5.57 oz/y² (189 g/m²)
• Giclée printing quality
• Opacity: 94%
• ISO brightness: 104%