Art and Social Justice “Love and Power”

Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”

April 4th the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s historic Riverside Church speech. The speech remains one of the most powerful expressions of Dr. MLK’s political justice analysis and social vision and serves as a powerful rallying call for all of us working creatively to end racism, militarism, and materialism, are incapable of being conquered.

"[W]e as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

Study Queen Selma Bridge

Study of teaching moment, collage wash on  board

 Creating art that brings his message to life.

collage study under bridge 

Fifty years later, to walk in his footsteps, to give voice once again to his powerful words, and to kick off a year of efforts by many organizations around the U.S. to remind people of Dr. King’s real message and unfinished work, the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture and partners are sponsored... 

#RevolutionOfValues, a one-day National Action taking place on April 4th, 2017 - April 4th, 2018

“Rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter but beautiful struggle”.

I started this commission with these thoughts in mind. How can I effect change, how can the voice in my art effect/affect change. The words "Love and Power" must work together if social justice is to be achieved, is the thoughts that ran through my mind as I pulled images, drafted a vision from the brainstorming that the collector, the Gallery Guichard owners, and myself took part in. 

The imagery is simplistic, a lone figure facing a decaying wall, with the message splattered across horizontally, with protesters behind the peeling plaster coming off the wall. I was focus on Queen Selma Bridge, as a pivotal starting point. What was happening under the bridge, not over it, a metaphor "Water under the Bridge". I went in with with all the imagery of 1968, came out with a lone image making his statement.,,,

POWER WITHOUT LOVE IS RECKLESS AND ABUSIVE, AND LOVE WITHOUT POWER IS SENTIMENTAL AND ANEMIC 

Detail of the study protestes in San Fransisco 

Detail, white washed out