Thursday, October 12, 2017

When A Picture And Caption Are Worth One Thousand Words



I am a word person but the explosion of visuals that digital media makes possible and social media makes visible has been one of the joys of my middle and now elder life.

The image above is one I created after sister peace activist Palma Ryan pointed out the opportunity for messaging created by Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit images growing old enough to enter the public domain.

Maine Veterans for Peace leader Richard Clement is creating buttons based on the design, and I expect to be receiving some in the mail soon. (Let me know if you'd like one by leaving a comment on this blog post.)



Art work by Russell Wray
As the annual Maine Peace Walk gets underway this week, I'm inspired by artist Russell Wray's eloquent banners and sculpture to express where we are and where he'd like us to be.


Banner posted by Mary Ann Grady Flores of protest at Hancock Air Base where she was arrested and sentenced to 6 months in jail for photographing protesters. Her appeal is being heard in Albany, NY this week.

How best to move people to realize we're bankrupting ourselves and killing forms of life all over the planet so a few very wealthy people can become even more wealthy?


Banner by Artists Rapid Response Team (ARRT!) of the Union of Maine Visual Artists

Anthony Freda is one of my favorite artists for the movement. His work ranges over many topics, but nobody does antiwar imaging better.

Here's one he created at my request that I use for the Natural Guard campaign:

Image: Anthony Freda
And a more recent image he created in response to the death wish expressed by the nominal leader of the USA:

As the leaves die brilliantly around me these days, I fear we may be in danger of witnessing the end of our ability to imagine and create images. I hope not.

1 comment:

Zacherydtaylor said...

Hi Lisa that first meme of yours hits the spot. Not only is war child abuse killing thousands of innocents but it's part of a vicious cycle. Those raised in the most authoritarian manner often with corporal punishment are often the strongest supporters of war and least likely to question authority.

Coercive child rearing is most common in the South and it teaches children to believe what they're told and to obey without question through fear from an early age, before they develop critical thinking skills. And when these children grow up they blame all the wrong people for their problems because it brings bad feedback from those they're closest to.

Support for corporal punishment in schools is strongest in the nineteen states that also have among the highest murder rates and most blind support for the military even though the politicians giving the orders keep lying!