The Wisdom of Woody

"I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim or too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard travelling. I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you. I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own kind of songs and to sing the kind that knock you down still farther and the ones that poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think that you've not got any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I'd starve to death before I'd sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your songbooks are already loaded down and running over with such no good songs as that anyhow."

-- Woody Guthrie

Manifest Hope Art Show

Manifest Hope Art Show: Barack Obama x Art. from Daniel Lahoda on Vimeo.

Artists for Obama

One of the things I really like about the Obama campaign is the way artists of various types have embraced it and used it as inspiration to create works of art. One of the latest that I like is above. It is a piece by David Choe, a fine artists who has designed and produced apparel, comic books, movie posters, album covers, fine art books and toys, among many other projects.

David Choe's Barack Obama poster is part of an ongoing series from Upper Playground of artist collaborations in support of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Upper Playground has endorsed Obama's campaign by creating posters featuring artwork from Grotesk, The Date Farmers, Munk One, Ron English, Alex Pardee, Morning Breath, Mac, Sam Flores and Mear One, in addition to printing T-shirts with Shepard Fairey's Obama graphics to help support the campaign.

There were 200 prints made that are signed and numbered, and each poster retails for $200. The limited-edition 18"X24" print is available exclusively online.

All proceeds from the sales of the poster will go directly to creating more campaign t-shirts, posters, and stickers by other artists in support of Obama's bid for President.

Unfortunately, this great print is sold out, but thanks to the internet, we can all still see it, enjoy it and use it online...

I like this one by Brooklyn artist, Grotesk:

Power to the Poster!

My good pal (and brilliant graphic designer), Justin Kemerling, is a co-creator of a really great public political poster project over at The Match Factory. The project is called "Power to the Poster." The idea is to encourage people to create interesting, challenging and provocative political posters, post them to the web, and allow anyone to download, print and post these pieces of political art in their communities. Here is how Justin and his co-conspirators describe it at the site:

A graphic design democracy project.

There is a restless, hopeful movement with eyes set on new possibilities for change leading to the prosperity of the collective.

And, of course, there is the clutter-ridden madness of a constant control room information flow.

Power To The Poster is the former taken to dismantling the latter.

This website is for people to use a ready supply of well-designed, wild postings that comment on the issues of our time. These 11x17, B/W posters in PDF format are for anyone, anywhere to download, print and post. Here's how:

• Download a Poster in 11 x 17 PDF format from our downloads page.

• Open your Poster in a PDF viewer program on your computer. One such program is Adobe's Acrobat. Totally free.

• Print your Poster on any printer capable of printing at 11 x 17 inches. If you don't have a printer you can print it at just about any copy center. Also, if you can, you should always print your posters on some serious FSC recycled, chlorine free paper.

• Take your new Poster print to a high traffic area. Maybe its at your work, maybe a wall in your neighborhood, maybe a coffeehouse, maybe its your refrigerator. (Respect people's property, of course).

• Post it and watch heads turn.

• Repeat.

Here are some more great and FREE designs (click any image to enlarge):










Now, go download, print and post...

... and TELL A FRIEND ABOUT THIS GREAT PROJECT!

Mexican Superheroes!

Over at Mother Jones, they recently ran a photo-essay by photographer Dulce Pinzon, titled, "Mexican Superheroes," and with a secondary headline that read, "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's a Mexican Immigrant". MJ described the 4-photo spread this way: "Pinzon posed undocumented Mexican immigrants in superhero costumes and captured their feats of derring-do in New York City." I thought it was worth reposting...

Here are the photos and the text that appeared with each one:

Photo #1: "It's Clobberin' Time"
Luis Hernandez (The Thing) works in demolition and sends $200 a week home to Veracruz.

Photo: #2: "Super Fry"
Oscar Gonzalez (Human Torch) is a cook. Originally from Oaxaca, he sends home $350 a week.

Photo #3: "Spidey Cents"
Window washer Bernabe Mendez (Spider-Man) sends $500 a month home to Guerrero

Photo #4: "Kitty Sitter"
Minerva Valencia (Catwoman) works as a nanny. She sends $400 a week home to Puebla

Any thoughts or comments about this photo-essay, or its meaning?

The Project for the Old American Century

As I've written several times before, I really like "political art," also known as propaganda. Good political art requires a certain kind of skill. Of course, it is usually heavy-handed, but when done well, it can also be very interesting and provocative.

I was reminded recently of this really good progressive propaganda website called The Project for the Old American Century. Here is their "Statement of Principals." In essence, the group is a reaction to the radical rightwing Project for a New American Century, which formulated the policy foundation for all the lunacy of the Bush years. The folks at The Project for the Old American Century are pissed about all this and are doing something creative about it.

The Project for the Old American Century has a fine collection of propaganda posters patterned on old war posters, advertisements, labor iconography and other government propaganda. They also have other resources at their website, like pamphlets, charts, documents, articles, and more, so I hope you'll click the link above and check it out further over there. In the meantime...

Here are a few of the posters that are critical of the Bush administration and their policies:




These fall under the "say it loud, I'm liberal and proud" category:



Uhhhh... this one sums up the Bush years pretty nicely, I think...


Do you know of any other good political art websites? If so, let me know. Leave a comment...

Reprise: The Story of Stuff

NOTE: I posted this about a month ago, but it got lost in the initial caucus/primary shuffle, so I thought I'd repost it now as a respite from all the ugliness on the Democratic side of the presidential race... oops! there's that word again, "race." Anyway, I think Annie Leonard's short film about consumption offers an alternative model to the politics of destruction and negativity we are currently suffering through. "The Story of Stuff" is creative and proactive, even as it levels a damning critique. This is the kind of politic that can be "transformative," because it does not trade in what divides us, but what unites us, and it offers a vision of something better that folks can rally around. If you didn't catch it the first time, I hope you will take a few minutes to watch the film, post a comment and pass the thread along to someone else... Here's to some positivity!

_________

One of the major concerns I have about the environment and which I think often gets over-shadowed in all the (justified) hoopla about greenhouse gasses, is "our problem with stuff," our addiction to material things, to the over-consumption of non-essential goods. We simply live a massively unsustainable way of life. Any environmental movement has to confront this reality...

Annie Leonard has created a delightful short film (20 minutes total) on this issue, titled, "The Story of Stuff, " which combines animation and humor to make a very creative progressive argument. Check it out and pass along the link to your friends and family. Everyone should see this:

Ch. 1: Introduction (2:37)


Ch. 2: Extraction (2:05)


Ch. 3: Production (3:27)


Ch. 4: Distribution (1:59)


Ch. 5: Consumption (6:35)


Ch. 7: Another Way (2:04)

The Story of Stuff

One of the major concerns I have about the environment and which I think often gets over-shadowed in all the (justified) hoopla about greenhouse gasses, is "our problem with stuff," our addiction to material things, to the over-consumption of non-essential goods. We simply live a massively unsustainable way of life. Any environmental movement has to confront this reality...

Annie Leonard has created a delightful short film (20 minutes total) on this issue, titled, "The Story of Stuff, " which combines animation and humor to make a very creative progressive argument. Check it out and pass along the link to your friends and family. Everyone should see this:

Ch. 1: Introduction (2:37)


Ch. 2: Extraction (2:05)


Ch. 3: Production (3:27)


Ch. 4: Distribution (1:59)


Ch. 5: Consumption (6:35)


Ch. 7: Another Way (2:04)

Graphic Resistance 2

This poster was created in 1988 by British artist Paul Peter Piech.

The copy/text on this lino-cut poster reads: “Open your newspaper any day of the week and you will find a report from somewhere in the world of someone being tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government.”—Peter Benenson.

The copy/text on the sardine can reads: “Product of Latin—South and Central America.”