passion & drive

Art has always been a powerful tool for social and political change. In our backwater banana republic corruption ruled long before the birth of our nation. For the rest of us not born to the 1% our only recourse is to get creative while working ourselves to the max.  

From the earliest cave paintings to contemporary Street Art, artists have used their work to express their views on society and the world around them. Escape artists that we are, dreaming big, wild, bold was our means of opening up a bigger, wider, braver world than that most of us were born into. 

Giant Picnic at the US-Mexico border wall - Tecate, Mexico & California

Typically created in response to social or political issues, the bane of our brutalized existence - we protest, rebel, revolt. Better to be bathed in blood than buried in deep, dark silence. 

Our protest art was never passive - as we were driven out of our homes, we took to the streets. Guerillas in our hills, barrios, and cities. Vocal, vigilant, vindictive - our weapons of voice often our only choice. 

Sharon Hayes - We Won't Go Back, 2022

The unreality pervasive in our past, present, and uncertain future have been boon and bane for us all - laborer, artists, and all with any imagination. Who cares about having my awareness raised? 

I’d rather view art that tears through veils of consciousness. Inspiring insight, and intent to open portals into the mysterious. I like art the most that doesn’t mean a thing, but beauty or strangeness transcending its subject. 

Hank Willis Thomas - One Million Second Chances (The Invisible Men), 2018

Stop making so much sense. Art should do more than communicate. It should move us - down to our knees, drenched in tears. Along with music, it is the purest expression of the human spirit. 

It is a cornerstone in the foundation of our humanity. It constitutes the thread of longing passed down generations, centuries, and lineages. Felt in every great art collective - people, institution, or monument. 

“My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love” mural - Dmitri Vrubel, 1990 & 2009

Art is often best when it’s absolutely deranged. We are irrational, incoherent beings, and artists and writers should embrace this once more. If you believe that artworks cast spells, you should use that magic for greater causes than propagating a polite, liberal sensibility or evading the effects of modern technology. 

You are free to dream anything. To build different worlds, to whisper enticements in many ears, to try to destroy reality; these are prospects that artists have dreamed of for centuries. There is still so much to imagine. ~ Dean Kissick, The Painted Protest 

popular mural in Europe