monkeyink:blog: The 2002 elections

I was suspicious of George Bush's government on the Iraq war from the beginning. I believed that if our intent was true and we indeed knew where the weapons of mass destruction were, our leaders would have disclosed this proof to the world thus instantly establishing a true coalition of nations to deal with the problem.

I hoped to the last moments before Shock and Awe that the power the Senate gave the president to wage this war was actually meant to make Saddam take this seriously and come clean. But, by the time there were reports that Saddam was signaling he might, our forces were reported to be beyond the point of no return as they entered the general area in force.

I spoke out on the run up to the war and after. I stayed as informed as I could and as part of several online communities I debated the issues with a wide range of people from military folks to conservatives of all types across the nation. I stayed as informed as I could on the subject and tried to pass the info along as best as I could to as many people as I could. I watched many many people realize as time passed that, as much as they wanted it to be otherwise, something was very seriously amiss.

Then came the 2002 elections. From my perspective the country simply didn't wake up quickly enough to avert disaster. Bush got his wish.. a Republican Congress.. zero oversight.. a rubberstamp for anything he wanted for the next four years..

So from this perspective, watching the nation hang on to the patriotic furvor brought forth by the tragedy of 9-11, whose momentium the Bush administration had diverted to their own ends, was somewhat life changing. As is illustrated by this drawing that I did the week following the election...

Dina was smart enough to have arranged a mini vacation for us in a cabin on the northern coast of california, a few hours drive from our home.

I didn't know it, but I was at the end of the only period in my life when I thought of myself as specifically NOT an artist. It lasted about 7 years.

This kinda crude image is about staying informed and active in current events, and the utter futility of it. I haven't stopped paying attenention to politics etc, at all, and I even making a decent amout of political art, but I have changed in that I decided to try to do what I'm apparently here to do... make art.

I have to find the quote, but the Surrealists said something to the effect that the most subversive thing an artist can do is what they would do despite... I took this to heart.

So I started making posters again. Soon the Art of Modern Rock came out featuring some of my work, as I was full steam into producing posters and art again.

My style is unique and not for everybody, if you dig it I appreciate it, if you don't that's cool. There is a lot of stuff I don't like and it still exists, so maybe I can still exist happily too, we'll see as the story develops..

This is a PDF flyer I made for people to print out for the 2002 election called Wrong Determination. I wasn't making posters at this time.
WrongDeterminationB1.pdf

November 14, 2002

The 2002 elections