Danielle Coke
Danielles talk spoke about using illustration to introduce and share activism messages. I think imagery within my work when bringing up a subject is important but I don't want the conversation to fall dead without any information or start of conversation. Not just a pretty quote. I think Danielles work seems to hit this in that it has more weight and miles with some of the imagery and starts debate and leaves information and questioning to the reader.
https://www.instagram.com/ohhappydani/
Combining illustration and activism
Digestible images from complex images that can sometimes be hard to digest
Passion for social justice, activism and racial reconciliation most specifically.
Wanted to express the legacy of MLK, felt like his legacy had been watered down and shared the piece. Had around 700 followers at the time and was the first piece I had shared more. Wanted to test it again to see if the content I shared if the imagery was pretty would they share it more of if it was harder content and conversation.
Use illustration to share more work, end of black history month had around 10,000 followers. Now I have around half a million followers.
Why art? Why does it have this effect in the activism community?
The quote I follow and want to explore in this talk is,
The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible. Toni Cade Bambara.
Many people may see art and activism as separate entity’s, art is used to invoke emotion and activism is used to encourage action.
To use the two together is to evoke emotion alongside the action and make it more powerful.
Illustration was at the beginning of civilisation before alphabets as a form of communication.
It can bring familiarity and evokes nostalgia
Makes content more accessible and individuals can digest it at their own pace. It removes barriers to entry and brings in a wider audience.
A visual can bring an individual into an image and then to look at the longer and deeper subject within.
Saying how to do it VS Showing someone how to do it. Unpackaging the issues.
I lean on simplicity.
Use Adobe Fresco and go through these steps..
Listen
Research
Narrow down
Conceptualise
Execute
Listen
What is being discussed on your community right now?
What does your audience want to hear from you?
How can you incorporate your own expertise and content?
Research
Lived experience/primary recourses/polling your audience
Narrow down
Get specific, digestible snippets, eg. 5 steps/4 ways etc
Conceptualise
What kind of visual makes sense? Eg. road map, list, flow chart?
What assets or tangible, real life scenarios relate to your topic?
Execute
Adobe Fresco
Stick to your simple
- Use fresco then export to illustrator
Can someone clearly see the idea that I’m trying to make and can connect the topic to the piece? The topic is always the most important part in the work but the piece also needs to look right too.
Relaying and dissemination of the topic and information.
In today's climate in our country, which is sickened with the pollution of pollution, threatened with the prominence of AIDS, riddled with burgeoning racism, rife with growing huddles of the homeless, we need art and we need art in all forms. We need all methods of art to be present, everywhere present, and all the time present.
Maya Angelou
I think this is a very strong call to action to all of us to lean into our creativity and use our gifts for good. All have the power to do good
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