“Forward to Recovery” sticker

I recently found a great political sticker about capitalism and the economy that looks very much like an I.W.W. stickerette due to its size, medium, and message.  It states “Forward to Recovery – Increased Activity – Price Rise – Employment.”  We see “Business” dressed as a fat cat in a fancy suit and pinstripe pants racing forward while being dragged down by the heavy anchor of “Low Wages.”  The artist’s name is difficult to decipher; the signature looks like “Terry Costello,” but I can’t find anything similar online or in any of my I.W.W.-related books and articles.  The reason I…

I.W.W. “stickerettes”

After learning recently about S.D.S. stickers (Students for a Democratic Society) in the U.S., I’ve been expanding my collection with a few more examples like these from the 1970s. Online today, I came across something even older – stickers from the early 1910s-1920s that were created for the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W) and used as “silent agitators” or “silent organizers.”  On Facebook, the Labor Archives and Research Center at San Francisco State University features six stickers, which at the time were called “stickerettes,” and writes, “they were easy to anonymously stick on surfaces throughout the job site (including…

STUCK UP and “They Live”

My “I’m Sorry (George W. Bush)” sticker is included in an exhibition entitled STUCK UP, A Selected History of Alternative & Pop Culture Told Through Stickers, which opens on January 20, 2012, and runs through March 3, 2012, at Maxwell Collette Gallery in Chicago.  The exhibition, which was curated by DB Burkeman, draws from his extensive personal collection and: “provides an unparalleled opportunity to explore the expanding role that stickers have played in popular culture over the past four decades.  ‘STUCK UP…’ features stickers from Street Art legends (Banksy, Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey, Space Invader, KAWS), and internationally lauded contemporary…

Evil of colossal magnitude

The second U.S. President John Adams condemned slavery in 1812 by stating it was an evil of colossal magnitude, but evil, years later, took on a new meaning.  In the days and weeks after the 9/11/2001 attacks, we heard the 43rd President, George W. Bush, appropriate the term almost like a mantra, with speeches announcing “a campaign against evil-doers,” to “rid the world of evil-doers,” and to “hold the evil-doers accountable.”  “Civilized people around the world denounce the evil-doers who devised and executed these terrible attacks.”  Bush used the term “axis of evil” in his State of the Union address…

Protests everywhere

Research from yesterday: February 13th and 14th mark the anniversary each year of the Dresden bombings, during which Allied forces killed an estimated 25,000 civilians by dropping incendiary bombs.  Far-right extremists have since used the occasions to gather in remembrance and march through the city with flags, banners, and torches.  In 2011, two funeral marches were scheduled within days of each other.  The first on February 13th drew 1,300 neo-Nazis, but what was remarkable were the 17,000 counter-protesters who also showed up to block the parade by creating a human chain extending two miles around the city.  The second gathering…

Ha ha.

The .png shots I take for this SK blog are too small in size and too low-res to be used in any other printed matter.  No surprise.  It’s weird, though.  I can re-save a .png shot as a .jpeg, and the file size remains the same?  I can’t remember.  In any case, I created a .png shot at 72 dpi, re-saved it as a 72 dpi .jpeg, and re-saved it again as 150 dpi and 300 dpi .jpegs.  You’re not supposed to enlarge files like this, but I’m having Shutterfly make 5 x7-inch photographs to see how they compare in…

A.C.A.B. stickers

A.C.A.B. is an acronym that stands for “all cops are bastards,” a punk phrase that can be heard shouted at public demonstrations and protests throughout Germany and many counties in Europe.  The formidable police presence at these events gets little notice in the United States, yet hundreds of videos on YouTube depict violent head-on clashes between armed police and unarmed protesters and passersby. In prisons in the United Kingdom and United States, the letters A.C.A.B. can often be found tattooed on the front of a person’s four fingers in clenched fist.  Alternately, in various other contexts, the acronym can mean,…

Backwoods in northern NY

Driving through some backwoods territory in northern NY this fall, I got a little lost and drove through Onchiota, where the Iroquois Six Nations Indian Museum is located (but unfortunately wasn’t open at the time). The six Iroquois nations include the Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Tuscarora.  I thought (mistakenly) that Mohawks made up the Haudenosaunee, but I learned in fact that Haudenosanee represents all six nations.  Now that I think about it, duh, Akwesasne is the term for what used to be called the St. Regis Mohawks near where I live. There were a bunch of political signs…

Sometimes/all the time

“Sometimes the pencil is stronger than I am” is my favorite quote right now from an Inuit artist, Suvinai Ashoona.  I can kind of relate.  Sometimes stickers and street art have such a strong presence and force, stronger than me.  Well, not sometimes. All the time. I hope that’s not too weird.  I love the creativity, the hope, the commitment, the optimism.  That people will notice.  That people will care.