Every day, sometimes every hour, some new piece of discouraging news seems to emanate like an ugly viscous cloud from the internet or the television, telling us the latest atrocity our government has committed or intends to commit, the latest scandal discovered and revealed to no purpose, the foul plans of the men at the head of our country, seemingly unchecked by either the representatives we have hired to be our advocates or by their own better natures, which no longer or never existed. The people they have or intend to disenfranchise, the rights they have or intend to trample, the progress they have vacated, the functionaries they have fired to put their puppets in as proxy, the denigration of our brothers and sisters, our most dearly held rights and beliefs sacrificed to their egos and their pocketbooks.
Daily I have become more filled with rage, but also with despair. That feeling of ineffectualness that tells me sending that letter, signing that petition, putting up that lawn sign, marching down that street will do nothing to stop the juggernaut of Fascism and bigotry that has somehow infiltrated every inch of our federal government. The sense of no control over my own life, my own body, my income, my choices.
I have been getting by with a combination of sending furious emails to the heedless so-called public "servants" who are now seemingly our masters, burying my face in a book to escape from this reality, and distracting myself by making art. Today, finally, I decided that what I can do, one of my capabilities and therefore possibly a vital function, is to use my skills at art to encourage, to rally, to keep up not just my spirits but possibly those of others. It may seem laughable to believe that this would have any effect where letters and emails and phone calls and marching have not; but art, after all, is powerful, is visual, can be visceral, and has the ability to inspire.
So here is my first piece of political art. I am claiming it by signing it, but I am sharing it freely on social media. If you like it, take it. Copy it, share it, spread it. I hope it serves to inspire or comfort or encourage someone to hang on for 40 more days and then during what will no doubt be troubled weeks and months after that until we can root the monsters out of our House, our business, our country, and begin the long and arduous but hopeful or even joyful task of building and rebuilding. Let's look ahead. I don't like the Biden/Harris slogan "Build back better." Let's not go back. Let's only go forward. Restoration is good, but creation is better.
Pencil, Uniball pen, watercolor, Daler Rowney inks, gouache, gel pen, on 140-lb. Strathmore watercolor paper, approx. 7.5x9.5 inches.
I applaud your project. We all need to have a creative outlet that allows us to feel as if we can make a tiny little difference. Instead of developing a pro-dem project I, as a retired physician, can create blog posts about the science we need to follow to understand what we can do for ourselves to survive the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteYES! Thank you, Shirley, for your encouragement and for your recognition that we all have a contribution that will make a difference. Let me know where I might find your blog posts.
DeleteBrilliant concept - every one can and should support this new movement of expressing ourselves. As so much of what has transpired in the last four years seems to be right out of Adolph Hitler's playbook, we become the new anti-Nazi German Expressionists.
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