“art as activism” panel discussion

i was recently invited by the open table kc to speak on a panel about art as activism. i was honored to sit alongside nika renee – poet , community organizer, and self-published author; and anthony marcos rea – multi-disciplinary artist, educator and organizer. painter, museum professional, and co-owner of monarch coffee jaime rovenstine was invited but unable to stay for the discussion. it was a great event, moderated by the inquisitive garrett brown, a member of the open table’s leadership team.

listen to the podcast of the discussion.

below are the images shown at the event as a representation of my work.

no mo logos [or “down with formats, up with people”]

embedded in many typical “design a logo for X” or “a magazine for Y” is the designerly conceit that prioritizes (fetishizes?) the thingness of the artifact over the need for humans to communicate particular content to certain other humans. if we are responsible and innovative designers, we will move beyond stuffing the need to communicate into a stock format, as profitable as that may be.

toward an anarchistic model for social innovation

it's funny how things fall together slowly over time, how one piece you discover a year ago will sync up so nicely with another piece you just discovered a minute ago. i'm having a synthesis moment right now and don't want to lose it, so here goes...

stand up kc; wage theft

as a student collaborator one of the first assignments was to work with stand up kc advocating for fair wages and termination of wage theft. little did i know that all this corruption was occurring in my backyard.

bike advocacy progress report

after my typical period of indecisiveness, a general direction has been established for this body of work. the direction includes a trait that i have noticed in the past year or two in my and my students' work – that one can often include many aspects of other ideas into a single direction.

creating culture [or “my first unwitting d.i.y. experiences”]

when i was growing up in the tiny farming community of vandalia mo [pop. 3,170 and shrinking] there was the usual prevailing “nothing to do” attitude amongst kids of all ages. my problem was that my four siblings and i didn’t really know that it was acceptable to just sit around and complain.