Resist 2020#7
New World Order: 200,000 dead and no end in sight.
Q. Cassetti 09.19.2020
Resistance v2: 2020
I made an image a week for the first year Donald Trump was president. One image a week—which gave me a little space to think about the significant image/idea and make an illustration from it. It was not easy to pick sometimes, but more often than not, the idea bubbled up with a degree of clarity that I really did not have to think too hard. Those images became a show at Exhibit A Gallery in Corning and were also the fodder for my “guerilla” resistance. I printed each card and placed them in literature racks around town and made them available for free for postcard writers and others interested in protesting the obscenity that this administration represented. Here are the images for your review. A few got published in national shows—and they were a good release for me.
However, as things began to wind up, I couldn’t focus on the one crystalline idea a week. It was all too much, too fast, too overlapping—-and I was (and still am) trying to drink from the firehose of information, media, stories, web of people, past and paperwork to really stay abreast of making an image. I had to let it settle and see if the inspiration would hit again. After a prompt from a graduate school friend and the coaxing of my family, I have climbed back on and started making images starting in mid August of this year. There are some themes (need themes to give me a hook and a push)—1. Saints and Sinners; 2. 10,000 Novel Coronavirus 19. The first is what it is, Saints and Sinners…not just those who are malicious, but those people who hearten and raise our spirits, the Saints. The second is to recognize every 10,000. people killed by the virus. I started at 180,000, 190,000 and have 200,000 in the offing. The coronavirus is apolitical and is busy being the best virus it can be—and I figured instead of hating it, I would embrace it, honor it and depict it not as a threat, but something that is here and needs to be regarded in awe and frankly, wonder at it’s ability to expand it’s reach. In giving it color and texture and adding the virus to everyday things—it might help me to be less fearful but still be cautious around it.
I will be posting on Facebook, on Instagram and here—and when a new one happens, I will post here just to give it a little space before it is cojoined with the group.
The Resistance: Creative Quarterly 49 Winner and 2 Runners Up.
Every week on either Thursday or Friday I post an image to Facebook and to this site that is the singular moment during this heinous time that crystalizes a moment in the chaos. I get interesting responses and often many thumbs up/likes or shares that reinforce that I am not a lonely person afraid and stunned at the turn that this government has taken but one of many...each of us sending resistbot messages daily, talking and voraciously gobbling up the news so as not to be stunned and shocked on the regular basis that this administration espouses.
These resistance pieces are designed to be postcards. I selectively print them with GotPrint.com, and then distribute them for free to anyone who asks, or in the local brochure racks that I place them guerrilla style for the taking. There are women who run postcard writing sessions, and I provide resistance cards as well as valentines to send to those in government who are doing a great thing and deserve kudos. I have put big packs of the cards with my pins into local fundraising auctions (getting a good sum of money for them). I hand them out....and they are getting noticed.
I got bitten by the enameled pin bug. If you go to Etsy and snoop around, you will see lots of fun and cute enameled pins created for the millenials and more. They are cheap and distinctive...and sell for around $10. After a trial balloon project here in the US, I crossed the ocean and have been buying these pins from a resource in China. They are really really nice, and not that expensive, so I carry them in my pocket and hand them out to friends and folks out in the world. I have a "NASTY" pin as well as "PERSIST", "RESIST", "what the fuck' (in Russian), and a new mess of woman related themes. If I sell 20 pins, it will pay for the lot of 200 so its beginning to be a break even proposition.
The National Womens' Hall of Fame will be carrying my pins, a pair of the resistance cards (Sally Yates and Princess Leia), some valentines and stickers. Induction weekend is next week for the Hall...and I hope this will be the beginning of a nice relationship. More on that later.
"Love and Resistance" just came down after a happy summer at Exhibit A in Corning, NY The images were enlarged to 12" x 18" unframed (hung with magnets) prints...in one little room. Quite impressive, quite loud. The opening was really fun with many people thanking me for capturing these moments that give them a moment to stop and reflect. And--We sold a mess of pins, and a mess of prints. So the work is out there...and there is some chatter that we might do something else before the holidays. Could be really cool.
I think a bit more writing to you will be a good thing to share my thoughts and images during these trying times will be good for both of us. Expect to hear from me soon.
Week Eight of the Resistance
Week Eight of the Resistance
Q.Cassetti 3.17.2017
Adobe Illustrator
Clown without the laughs