My Poster selected for Manifest Hope DC

My poster Workers Unite, from the Manifest Series, has been selected to be put on display at the Manifest Hope: DC gallery! Of the distinguished panel of judges one was producer, director and actor, Spike Lee. Another was artist and designer Shepard Fairey. If you do not know who he is you have probably seen Fairey’s work at some point and most likely his Obama poster.

“MANIFEST HOPE: DC gathers together a diverse array of the nation’s most talented visual artists under one roof to mark the Presidential Inauguration and encourages artists and activists to maintain the momentum to bring about true change in the United States.

MANIFEST HOPE: DC, will issue an inspiring visual call-to-action, encouraging a redirection of public energy toward true reform in three key areas: Health Care Reform, Workers Rights and the Green Economy.

The Gallery will be open to the public in Washington, DC for the days preceding the Presidential Inauguration, Saturday, January 17th, 2009 through Monday, January 19th, 2009 between the hours of 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM. Art exhibition management will be provided by our Washington, DC gallery partner, Irvine Contemporary.

Congratulations to fellow Nashville artist Herb Williams as his three-dimensional crayon portrait of Barack Obama was invited to be displayed at the show. Even more exciting is the fact that his piece sold for $25,000.00. Woo-hoo!

My “Workers Unite” poster symbolizes the power of a unified workforce to accomplish its goals. The poster joins together workers from mechanics and landscapers to educators and office staff to reveal the rights and importance of all workers.

“Unified people can make amazing things happen. Unified people fought and achieved the 40-hour work week, the 8-hour workday, overtime, sick leave, paid vacation, maternity leave, employer-paid health insurance, safety and health protections and guidelines, fairness in promotions and minimum wages. Together there is nothing we can not achieve.

We work hard. We deserve to be treated with respect and dignity by our employers. Our worth as workers and the value of the services we provide is immeasurable. Together we can ensure that the lives and livelihood of workers and our families remain a top priority for our employers. A strong and united work force can lift this country out of the murky waters and together we can put our economy back on track.

Central to that, the very crux of making these things possible, is the right to organize, efficiently, without employer intimidation and scare tactics. When a majority of workers speak, their will should be recognized.” – from MANIFEST HOPE website.

A smaller version of my Workers Unite poster is available here in a limited edition of only 15 prints. You can also get the limited editions of the Manifest Opportunity poster and the Manifest Change Poster here.

 

Barack Obama – Meet the new Boss – Same as the old Boss

Barack Obama is bringing much change to the White House – changing it back to the way it was when Bill Clinton was President. If Obama was serious about a real change then he would not be surrounding himself with former Clinton staff members and appointing them as his advisers. A great report by Paul Craig Roberts titled, Conned Again lists several Obama advisers and their political history. History tells us that political corruption, aggressive wars and economic hell are some of the “changes” that will continue in this country and around the world with a Republican or a Democrat President.

Countless artists have attempted to canonize Barack Obama in support of his presidential campaign, but none more successfully as Shepard Fairey and Ron English. Fairey’s incredible poster of Obama is, to be sure, a thing of beauty. While Ron English’s Obama Lincoln is also a beautifully powerful image to say the very least of these two works of art. Hopefully, Fairey and English have not been fooled by the very establishment they are supposed to be against, but more likely, they like most Americans hope this time there will be a true change.

Regardless, Kurt Nimmo’s article Progressives need to dump Obama and the Corporatist Democrat Party puts it like this, “They invariably buy into all the manufactured hype around elections. They are hard pressed to realize the obvious fact — elections are dog and pony shows designed to trick the public into thinking they are participating in the so-called democratic process when in fact they are simply signing off on corporate and banker vetted candidates, who are little more than PR front men and script readers.  Obama is no different than Bush, except he is more intelligent and more palatable to the masses. Democrats have the same agenda as the Republicans, albeit with differences on a few social issues, which are played up in the corporate media. But when it comes to financial and foreign policy — and the two are intertwined — there is no difference. It happens every election cycle.”

So for any truth seeker, I have created this poster in an attempt not to glorify or scorn Obama, but to reveal that which only truth reveals. How’s this for a CHANGE!