40 days of art

01

Informed Revolution

When I graduated from college, I was really in my own head and thinking about having fun and setting up my new adult life. I lived with my grandfather to save money. I remember walking into the living room while he was watching people wade through knee-high waters on the news as they took their few belongings from their flooded homes. Katrina had hit three days prior, but I was so caught up in my own life that I was not paying attention to this suffering that was happening to people who lived a 15 hour drive away.

That was a huge wake up call. I promised myself that I would be more tuned in to what is going on in the world and try to help inform people about various socio-political issues using the only tool I had: Art. I quickly built a site called Informed Revolution, where I would post digital collages that were reactions to different things going on in the news. I really wanted to make this a community space, so I opened up the site for submissions where other artists could share their ideas and we could make it a real conversation!

I found this CD of old retro stock photos at my job at the time and I used those to make the collages. I really loved using 1950s photos as a base because it felt like the models actually believed in the lies they were selling. They felt more earnest in a way and were the perfect material to use for my social commentary.

I did this project for a year or two and then I moved on to other things, but it really was a fun moment and one of my first longer-term projects.