For the past 5 years, I have struggled to find the place where art and social justice intersect in my work. I want my art be a catalyst for change not just something I make in a studio and sell for someones personal pleasure. I have tried all forms of art making to see which one lends itself most to the political messages that communities want to convey. Video, performance, design, painting all seem to have their moments of glory but one doesn't do the trick on its own. When we are protesting at city hall they don't allow video so I focus on creating large visuals (see below) but if I want to reach a large group of organized people, video is a great tool for conveying clear messages. But the only way to make video work is to be editing constantly and posting things all over the internet and then I would spend hours upon hours staring at my computer screen. So as a result, I pick and choose my moments with video and then I see a film like "Wasteland" featuring Vik Muniz and I am right back at it, attempting to document all of the process that I go through with art making in community.
The images below are examples of visuals that I created with colleagues at Child First Authority for large scale rallies in downtown Baltimore. We were fighting for funding for school construction for Baltimore City students.
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