Artist: Current Activities
Artist Books & Portfolios | Prints | Political Posters | Painting | Exhibitions
The completion of a large screenprint book project titled Tipping Point, was a goal for 2020 that got pushed back to 2021. The book brings together ideas first developed as political posters, along with new imagery and reworks it all into a semi-narrative form of the fight against the hydra headed beasts of racism and classism. I've always wondered about the common idea in political art circles that images of protestors represents a "positive" political message. This book is an attempt to go from the extreme negative and go past the protest to envision something more than simply protest as a goal.
2020, was the year of make or break politics for much of the world. But COVID changed the equation for everything. My teaching job was lost when the San Francisco Art Institute spectacularly failed and much of 2020 into 2021 was filled with fighting against a completely incompetent management interested only in their own preservation and in looting the Diego Rivera mural to pay off the debts they'd acquired. In the meantime we all continue to be sidetracked by the rise of fascism around the world, the collapse of the ecosystem, and economic inequality. San Francisco Poster Syndicate lost it's base with the closure of SFAI and the difficulty of live printing but continues trying to be a graphic support for activists fighting the real struggle.
Working to complete the production for a book on the history of Mission Grafica written by myself, based on conversations with several of the key players in that important print studio. Also assisting a group working on the estate of Emmy Lou Packard in preparation for an exhibition of her work at the Richmond Art Center in 2021.