a few ways to art the vote…

remember when we all used to blog? well i’m gonna try to get back in the habit and stop relying on facebook so much.

in the last few days i have become aware of a few calls for art to inspire folks to get out to vote in the presidential election in november. which is, you know, kinda important. and i fully believe in the power of art to inspire, motivate and galvanize enthusiasm for the election.

website design by https://simplesc.tt/

the first one came out of the blue from one of my fellow artists for obama, from that grassroots movement of creatives (of which i was a part) that came together in 2008 to help elect barack obama, culminating in the manifest hope gallery show in DC during the inauguration. he’s spearheading an effort based on the concept of UNITY – http://time2unite.org/. here’s a snippet of the email he sent me:

I’m reaching out to ask you to join an army of artists, designers and creatives. Similar to the work we did in 2008 for the Obama campaign, I have hope that together we can inspire other artists and designers to express a single message we desperately need to hear. UNITE. IF WE UNITE, we can secure this election for a Biden/Harris victory and move past 45, and begin to heal this country. Whether you are a progressive activist, a part of the exhausted majority, or an ideal moderate, we need to all UNITE. We need to once again illustrate a word and begin the process of letting things manifest themselves. Let’s once again unleash our collective creativity.

i plan to create at least one design, if not more, and i just love the idea of a grassroots visual uprising to bring people together to defeat the fascist in the white house. i encourage you to do so too!

the second comes from a new nola local organization, creative community league, seeking designs for a GOTV postcard campaign. here’s the post directly from facebook:

CALLING ALL ARTISTS: $100 for a winning Get Out The Vote (GOTV) postcard design

November elections are right around the corner! In an effort to support local Get Out The Vote (GOTV) campaigns, Creative Community League will offer FREE GOTV postcards to advocates and allies working in Louisiana.To support local artists, Creative Community League invites artists and creators to submit a design for a 4×6 postcard. From the submissions, three designs will be chosen. Artists of winning designs will be awarded $100 each. Deadline to submit a design is August 30. Designs should be full-color, 3 1/4” W x 3 3/4” H, and 300 dpi. Please send the image as a pdf to Amanda Sanfilippo at amandafromcreativeleague@gmail.com.

Launched in 2020, Creative Community League is an initiative that utilizes cultural strategies for movement building, supporting artists, storytelling, and other dynamic community engagement in moving reproductive and sexual awareness into creative spaces. Creative Community League is funded by the Packard Foundation. Visit us on Facebook at Creative Community League. For additional questions or if you would like a FREE order of 50 GOTV postcards, email Amy at amyfromcreativeleague@gmail.com.

sounds like a cool idea and i’m excited to hear about the new local effort. i’ll see if can come up with something.

the third i just learned about this weekend while attending netroots nation at home, this year’s all-virtual iteration of the annual progressive activist gathering that i’ve always wanted to go to but never managed to afford. this year on a whim i decided to apply for a scholarship as even their reduced covid-affected rate was more than i could handle financially, and surprisingly, they approved me!

it was a great experience, i learned a ton, and i was able to take part in several design-related panels/trainings, amongst so many others. during one of the diy design sessions, i decided to post in the chat about the above UNITY call for art, and was immediately approached by a woman from people for the american way (PFAW), who recently launched their own national “art the vote” campaign with the theme of enough of trump. they’ve enlisted several big name artists like shepard fairey, carrie mae weems, jeffrey gibson, tatyana fazlalizadeh, ed ruscha, deborah kass, and others, and launched a kickstarter to fund billboards in key swing states featuring these artists’ works.

jeffrey gibson’s “enough of trump” contribution

the kickstarter page explains that if they reach their goal – and they did, in fact they quadrupled it! – they will expand beyond the 12 artists they started with into other states. and so while i don’t see an explicit call for art on a grassroots level, i don’t see why folks shouldn’t use this theme to make your own version to spread wherever you live or online. i’ll update here if i learn anything more.**

so, there you have it. some inspiration. i frankly wanted to write this all down mostly for myself, so i’d remember to use these prompts to make something. it’s been hard over these last five months to feel inspired, frankly. but it’s time to get back to it, for my own mental health. i’ll show you whatever i come up with – you show me yours!

**edited 8/18 to add: upon reading the social media toolkit on the enough of trump website, i did find their “get involved” details:

Want to submit your own artistic entry? Make your own post on Twitter with whatever art you’d like – a drawing, song, poem, anything! 

Make sure to tag @peoplefor AND use both #EnoughOfTrump and #ArtTheVote in your post so we can find your entries – and we might retweet you!

(When you submit content to PFAW, you grant PFAW permission and a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to post or display your content on PFAW’s website and any other PFAW media platform. Content you submit must be your own original work and not the work of a third party.)

why do i even still have a website?

i really don’t know. i am HORRIBLE about updating here. really – if you’ve stumbled across this page and think you might be interested in what i do, please don’t rely on this website for your means of information about me! it’s been MONTHS since i updated here. (scroll down to the bottom of this post and i’ll list the other ways you can follow me more in real-time.)

 

 

 

but just cuz i don’t update here regularly doesn’t mean i haven’t been doing stuff. let’s see… since the “educate agitate organize” shirt design, i made a “dyke witches don’t play” button on a whim, and then i made a more generic “witches don’t play” sticker with the best hashtag ever – #youVEXweHEX. and then i even cut a stencil so i could print off a few tshirts of the “dyke witches” design so my friends could have them to wear at voodoo festival.

yeah, they are kinda silly but in these past few months, what with the protest and outcry about the kavanaugh hearings and every crazy thing 45 does and the midterm elections, i’ve just really been feeling the power and fierceness of the witches in my life and wanted to make a little something for them/us. i mostly have given the buttons and stickers away and sent them out to my patreon supporters, but maybe at some point i’ll sell a few. i do have a few tshirts on hand of the “dyke witches” design and both designs are up on my teespring store for sale.

the other big development is that in a completely surprising turn of events, i’ve been experimenting with abstract expressionist painting in my living room. small canvases for now, cuz my living room is really small (!), but i put a dropcloth down and work on several canvases at once… and it’s been really fun! and i did post a few pics on social media and folks seem to like them! i haven’t gotten to the point of feeling comfortable enough with this style to want to sell anything yet, but well, the holidays ARE coming up so maybe that’s the perfect time to try to get rid of everything that’s piling up in my living room studio! stay tuned for announcements about that.

i’m trying to get myself together for the holidays, but it’s so hard when my day job gets so much busier at this time of year too. at this point, i only have one holiday market scheduled and it’s not even in new orleans – it’s in chico, california on december 1st! i’m traveling out there to visit my best pal and her partner, and they signed me up for this bazaar at an artist’s studio. so i’m trying to figure out what to bring out there, what i can fit into one suitcase. more on that when i have more of the details.

i guess that’s it for now. but if you want to follow my art adventures in a more timely fashion, please follow me on: facebook, instagram, and/or patreon. oh, and etsy.

EDUCATE AGITATE ORGANIZE tshirts are ready!

educate agitate organize black ink on red tshirts

these EDUCATE AGITATE ORGANIZE tshirts are finally ready!

limited run. canvas red color. bella/canvas brand. short sleeve unisex crew. 100% ringspun cotton jersey. sizes S – 2XL available right now.

$20 per shirt + $4 1st class domestic shipping for 1 shirt. ($5 for 2-3 shirts. 4+ shirts $7.)

if you are local to new orleans and want to pick up, no shipping charge, obviously.

if you need international shipping email me at: artbymags@gmail.com so we can figure out the cost.

send payment via paypal to: mags@artbymags.com (friends/family payment if you know how to do that)

send payment via venmo to: mags504

please make sure to email me your shipping address and sizes when you order!

i’m also taking pre-orders on:

-unisex canvas red sizes 3XL – 4XL. (3XL = $20, 4XL = $23)

-GREY unisex shirts. sizes S – 4XL (4XL = $23, others $20)

-and WOMEN’S bella/canvas relaxed fit tshirts in both RED and GREY, sizes S – 2XL (these are the only sizes available). $20 each.

thanks everyone for the support!

#abolishICE protest graphic

i literally whipped this up last night after a very long day of work and finished it this morning before i went to work. i wanted to have SOMETHING that i had created for this big immigration-themed protest tomorrow, though i’m now realizing i won’t have time to cut it as a stencil and make any posters. but i will try to print at least one out on my fancy new large format color printer and see what they look like, just so i can have one to carry.

this one above is the rectangular version, the original version. but then when i went to put it up on facebook as my profile pic, i realized it needed to be square so i stretched it out and made a low-res square version as well (below). i think it actually looks better as a square but for printing purposes i think the rectangle will probably work better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

if i can figure out how to upload a high res file to my website, i will offer it as a free download. stay tuned. feel free to snatch and/or share one of these versions for online use. i’d appreciate credit or a link back to this site or my fb or insta profiles, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

PERSIST stickers are in!

the PERSIST stickers are in. they are 6″x1.5″ matte finish, like the larger of the RESIST stickers (which i also still have some of). $1 each if you paypal (mags@artbymags.com) me via friend payment so there’s no fee, or use squarecash ($mags) or venmo (mags504), since neither of them has a fee either. or you can get them in my etsy shop where they cost a little more to cover the fees.

i feel like the timing of these is perfect as i know many of us are suffering from resistance fatigue… but we really must persist!

RESIST shirts + stickers!

my latest design is simple but bold. i actually started working on it BEFORE the election, fully thinking hillary clinton would be our president. but, well, now it has even more meaning. my friend julie recently (post-election) snapped a picture of a sign on a house on st. bernard ave that said: resistance must now become like breathing. i don’t know if this is a famous quote by someone that i should know (i googled it but found nothing), or just the wise words of a local person who felt the need to scrawl it out on a handwritten sign and tack it up on their house, but it’s the truth and it really resonates with me.

i made the above resist sticker for my patreon subscribers, but of course ran extra knowing folks would probably want these. well i’ve already sold out of that initial run of 200 and am half way through the second 200; i now have a run of 500 on the way. pretty sure this will be an ongoing effort. i mean, we’ve got four years of this fascist crap to resist, right?

you can buy them from me directly for $1 each. (they are up in my etsy shop but cost $2 each there due to paypal and etsy fees.) email me if you want stickers.

i also hand painted a screen and have printed t-shirts. for now, what i’m selling are black, 100% cotton, Next Level brand, soft lightweight t-shirts with white water-based ink. i have mens and women’s crew cuts in sizes small through 2XL. $20 per shirt. they are also up in my etsy shop but you can get them from me directly by emailing me.

now is not a time for complacency. or for silence. or for normalizing this incoming administration and president. now is the time for coming together, conspiring, organizing and mobilizing. we must actively #resist.