Cindy as a Shahn-esca
September 25th, 2005
I started this just wanting to see what the Bensfolk Font looked like in the context of a Ben Shahn protest piece. Then I wanted to see if I could reproduce some of his famous line work in Photoshop using a Wacom Tablet. Appropriating a timely image and a quote from Cindy Sheehan, the entire concept is a shameless lift of Ben’s famous Sacco and Vanzetti poster.
Really, it’s nothing but an unimaginative study, and while I can’t claim to be that impressed with my own results, I do want to leave it here to ponder another thought. Ben’s true talent as an artist was his ability to connect to the common man. He was primitive and direct, and sometimes (as the name of the font suggests) was considered “folk” in his style, which is probably the reason his message largely hit home. In his day, he was one of the most popular and well-known names in modern art.
I have to wonder, though, where all that went in visual communication. There seems to be nothing today that tries to connect to the populous the way Shahn or any of his contemporaries did with Social Realism (not be mistaken for Socialist Realism). If anything, the populous itself is nothing but a target for division these days. And as it always has, the dominant elitist attitude towards art and culture does nothing but further that division.
So, at least in my mind, there does seem to be a great need for a style that encourages some kind of unifying energy.
Why? Because without such a visual vocabulary, so to speak, the “common” world-view is too easily dismissed. Michael Moore can make all the brilliant polemics he wants and inspire scads of other documentarians into doing the same, but the full message won’t stick without a true movement supporting it. There needs to be something else, something beyond a look-I-told-you-so message—something to lift the essence up and keep it pertinent over time. Such a movement could connect the tiny little dots into a lasting impression and burn like tiny embers in our collective psyche.