44: Obama Art

On January 10, I held a reception at Heineman Myers Contemporary Art with my friend Zoe who owns the gallery. We called it 44: Obama Art. I hung Obama posters I had collected that represented the fresh, enthusiastic and visionary aesthetic of the Obama campaign. Zoe got electronic musician Yoko K to perform her work, including her "Obama Mix". I brought in artists Robert Strasser and Michael Murphy. Robert is a potter and Mike is a fine artist who works in multiple media; Mike brought a urethane piece, print, and wire piece for the show. The wire piece was similar to one of his featured in Time Magazine on January 5 (the cover of that magazine was a rendering of Shepard Fairey's Hope image of Obama). The wire piece pretty much made the show. We also had a great poster of newspaper covers from around the world by Robin Wolfson and Jack Stapleton. I sold my tagz necklaces and a silkscreen print called 2044: Hope. Proceeds from the show benefited Juvenile Diabetes Research and Cakes for Cause, a nonprofit that teaches job skills to at-risk youth in a working bakery.

It was a dream come true to put the show together, as I have been wanting to share the art that I love with other people so that they too could experience the vision and passion that the artists have had for Obama's message to "Be the Change". These pieces for me reflect what I have felt in my heart about the potential to change the direction our country has been heading and to remake ourselves. The art in this blog is about creating a vision of a future that I want to see manifested in reality.