The Building of a Movement: 2004, 2006, 2008

The world doesn’t seem much different than when this video came out in 2004. That’s when Dean still had promise, Kerry was looking tired and in need of another round of Botox, and some couch-potato Democrats were just starting to get tired of the Iraq war. There were signs though that something was happening and the youth movement (those 18 to 30) in this country was building.

The video director, Ian Inaba, has a great explanation of the impact this video had when it was released. While the video didn’t unleash the flood of youth votes critics would have required before making this a news story, a 9% increase is a nice amount.

Now in 2008 we have another movement, or more correctly, a continuation of the original Dean movement, except this time there’s no scream to stop it in it’s tracks. And this is what is frustrating Republicans. After nearly a decade of failed policy advocated by their party, (I’d like to actually include the Clinton post-1993 term in that as well), people are tired, but they also realize that they have a voice, that one vote does matter when added to enough other votes.

In Black and White Day 2 - Seeds of War

Day 2 and I didn’t get to spend as much time as I’d have liked with this drawing. but something started to emerge toward the end. Although drawing in Photoshop, I tried to emulate a scratchboard technique. For those not familiar with what scratchboard is, it’s basically a clay board, covered in black ink. You then use a sharp object and you scrap away to reveal an image. It’s a challenging technique to do it well, of course with Photoshop, there is considerably less challenge.

In Black and White Day 1: Inaction = Silence

There is a time for color. And then there’s Picasso’s Guernica.

Especially on themes of war, of humanity, on human rights, and political struggle, black and white is often more powerful; a stark blatant expression. You can’t negotiate. Black and white offers very little subtlelty.

So I’ve set out a goal for myself (similar to the one that launched this blog). For the next 30 days I will post a new drawing each day. These drawings will be inspired by what I consider the greatest black and white political art.

There will be no words in the images. No labels or cartoonist crutches.

This first drawing was inspired by Kathe Kollwitz, who’s work I’ve long admired and could never hope of achieving her ability to communicate such raw emotion on paper. If you’ve never seen her work, take some time and familiarize yourself with her drawings. They’re beautifully tragic.

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