I am an artist/activist...or is it activist/artist? It's impossible to put one before the other or separate them. The work on this website represents artwork which I have created, sometimes on my own and sometimes in relationship with organizations, communities and organizers. I believe that art can contribute to changing people's perceptions, hearts and understandings of what has been, what is and what's possible. I'm enough of an organizer to understand that art can't do it alone; people getting together and acting together is the real source of social change. The dignity and possibility in all people is the underlying message of my work.I call what I do "medicinal art" (to adapt a phrase from my sister, Aurora). It means that when I work with any community I start with a diagnosis. I ask what it is that keeps this group of people from knowing their power and acting on it. Not what has been done to them but wounds, fears or ways of thought keep folks immobilized. What stories then might be offered, like acupuncture needles placed with precision to free up trapped energy, which can help reveal the possible avenues for collective action.
I began making woodcuts and caricatures when I was young. Later I discovered silk screen printing and worked many years, both as an artist and in industrial settings, as a screen printer. My favorite art medium is scratchboard, a clay on wood surface in which textures can be scratched and colors added. I have also worked in a range of service and manufacturing (and a minimum of agricultural) jobs and entered activisms at the grassroots. I have participated in movements for justice, increasingly using my art as a way to contribute. As a founding member of the Northland Poster Collective I have participated in the trenches of the labor movement in various capacities and have offered my art as a tool to assist in organizing drives, educational efforts, awards, commemorations and for various other functional purposes.
Since the closing of Northland in the summer of 2009 (after thirty years), I have opened this studio from which to continue the work that I love, partnering with the inspiring people who work every day to make a better world for our children.
The team that established this web site consisted of Alejandro Levins, Ricardo Levins Morales and Lila Karash. Assistance with data and organization was also offered by Olivia Levins Holden and Betsy Raasch-Gilman. The underlying structure and deep programming was performed by UltraCart.
Art media
As a child I used the materials that were most easily accessible, paper and pencil. The black and white sensibility that resulted was easily transferable to wood block and linoleum prints when I discovered these as an adolescent in Chicago. I also began doing political caricature at that time, influenced by the work of the Puerto Rican Lorenzo Homar and the North American David Levine.
I discovered silk screen screen printing in the pages of Ramparts magazine and decided to someday pursue it. It opened up the possibility of producing art that could be made available to large numbers of people at a low cost. Years later I would save enough money to send away for a booklet and some supplies and begin to teach myself screen printing.
I used a variety of stencil making types, mostly cutting and pealing laquer film and adhering it to the screen. Later that would evolve into cutting the less toxic rubylith and photographically transferring the image to the screen for printing.
I was introduced to scratchboard by another artist (thank you, Lisa Blackshear!) in the early 1980s and it has been my primary medium ever since. Scratchboard is a board with a layer of clay on the surface. I prefer the white clay. I brush the initial art on with black ink (a legacy of my black and white genesis) and scrape it with a rounded blade to get the print-like textures. Many of my screen prints were done originally as scratch board drawings. For full color art I add watercolor to the scratch board. I can then scan it into a computer to prep it for printing or digital posting. I can use graphics programs to adjust it as needed, add smooth color gradients in some cases and combine it with typefaces when appropriate.
Since I use sharp blades in my art, I must always check luggage with the airline when I travel by air since they won't let me bring it into the cabin.