Life of the Week: Pro-life artist: “I want to put the message of love before anything else”

While on a field trip to the Indiana State Museum with her biology teacher during her freshman year of high school, Alyx Kopie saw a video on human life from conception until death that changed her life. The video detailed the development of humans in all stages, and the ultrasound images especially inspired her – starting Kopie on her path to the pro-life movement before she even realized it.

“I really loved the ultrasound images of the babies,” she says, “and I thought that it was so beautiful from an artistic perspective. The images were so beautiful that I started drawing fetuses all over my folders.”

But she didn’t just draw them on folders; she also happened to draw one on a friend’s arm while participating in her church’s youth group. A leader of the group took notice and asked her about it, wondering if Kopie was a part of the pro-life movement. But Kopie hadn’t even heard about abortion, much less joined a movement against it. She was shocked to learn what the act of abortion was.

I couldn’t believe it was a real thing, so I went home and I Googled it. I figured it couldn’t happen a lot but after I read the statistics I was shocked, and I became passionate about it.

Kopie then began combing her passion and gift for art with her new passion for saving the unborn. Soon, her pro-life artwork was on display at  Archdiocese offices, where it received both praise and criticism. It turned out that some church members felt the artwork was too graphic and violent and therefore shouldn’t be displayed in the center of the church offices.

Kopie struggled with these criticisms. She couldn’t understand how she could possibly make artwork about abortion any less graphic than she already strove to. Abortion is such a horrific act that anything depicting it is going to be graphic by nature. In addition, Kopie found it unsettling that anyone in support of the right to life would think it inappropriate to show what abortion really is and to educate people about it. But despite her frustration, Kopie didn’t stop.

First Steps

Now 21, she is attending the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis. She’s been to the March for Life in D.C., belongs to a pro-life group at her church, gives talks to high school students about abortion, and teaches a youth group at her church.

One thing Kopie doesn’t want is for her artwork to turn pro-choicers away. Instead, her goal is to make them think. Because of this, her latest pro-life artwork incorporates animals.

“I’m doing twelve pieces based on road kill,” she explains. “I started with a little beetle, and it slowly progressed to a mouse, a raccoon, a dog, and they progress to ask where people fall in line of importance. My main goal is getting people to think about which life is significant and what gives one life more meaning over others. What gives you the right to say this life is more significant than another?”

Kopie has received a great deal of positive feedback on these pieces, including from her pro-choice art professors who call her work tasteful and direct without being judgmental.

Some of her work has even received awards, including “Viva Y Amor” which won an honorable mention in the Scholastic Art Awards. This is welcome news to Kopie who hopes her work can help educate pro-choicers. She says:

I’m all about the healing of women who have suffered from abortion, not to judge or attack anyone. I want to put a message of love before anything else.

You can view Kopie’s work on her website.  She’s also planning to open a shop on Etsy soon.

Editor’s Note: This summer, we will be providing you with a Life of the Week story every Friday. Our previous Life of the Week articles are here:

• Life of the Week: Coming your way soon

• Life of the Week: Marlena Diedrich and the Acts of Grace Foundation

• Life of the Week: One mom’s hopeful journey from infertility to fulfilled dreams

• Life of the Week: Rapper’s heartbreaking video on regretting abortion has 6+million views

• Life of the Week: From abortion to pro-life speaker

• Life of the Week: Two students bike to save unborn babies

• Life of the Week: Standing for life in Texas

• Life of the Week: Midwife fights against describing children as “monsters”

• Life of the Week: Eli Project gives orphans hope and homes

• Life of the Week: Defying the doctors and the odds with Trisomy 18

• Life of the Week: Noah’s Dad

Please come back each Friday to find a new featured Life of the Week!