Campaigns
Modern Day Slavery Museum
Posted August 23, 2010 by k_c_ in Campaigns
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers have created a touring exhibit called the Modern Day Slavery Museum. It toured the last few weeks around the Northeast of the USA, stopping in NYC.
RESOURCED at Marketplace Gallery
Posted August 10, 2010 by k_c_ in Justseeds & Member Projects
Here are some photos of the RESOURCED exhibit at Marketplace Gallery, 40 Broadway Albany, NY.
"We Agree: A Crisis In Common" Opening!
Posted August 5, 2010 by roger_peet in Art exhibits/shows
Portland! Come out tomorrow evening, Thursday August 5th, to the SEA Change Gallery, downtown in the Everett Station Lofts, for the Opening of "We Agree: A Crisis in Common". Two giant blockprints about the impact of the natural gas industry on both sides of the Pacific: One made by the Portland-based members of Justseeds, and the other by renowned Indonesian printmaking cooperative Taring Padi! The prints are huge and dense and awesome, and the gallery is packed to the rafters with other work by Roger Peet, Alec "Icky" Dunn, Pete Yahnke, and members of Taring Padi. For more information on the project, navigate here
SEA Change Gallery
625 NW Everett Street
Gallery #110
Portland, OR
Opening at 5pm, refreshments will be available to those with quick feet and swift lifting elbows!
Beehive Collective Releases "True Cost of Coal" poster
Posted August 5, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
News from the Beehive Collective:
THE TRUE COST OF COAL is finished, printed, and ready for you to enjoy!
It’s true! After 2 ½ years of discussions, feedback, eraser marks, sketches and rough drafts, THE TRUE COST OF COAL is DONE! And we can’t wait to share it with you!It is hard to describe the mix of emotions we ‘lil bees are feeling after this final push. Somewhere between exuberance and exhaustion, all of it steeped in immeasurable gratitude to all the folks who have helped make this graphic possible. To all the powerful people and places in Appalachia who shared their stories and their struggles with us, to all the folks who have hosted shows and offered up their floors or couches, to everyone who has kicked down money to keep us going, to friends and family who have emotionally supported us through this rollercoaster of a project, and to everyone else who has touched or inspired this graphic in some way- thank you. No doubt, YOU all are what made this project possible!
Experience the full poster and read the narrative at the TRUE COST OF COAL page on our website, and find behind-the-scenes studio shots in our Sketchbook and on our Coal campaign blog!
You can order a poster from the Beehive here.
Justseeds 2010 Portfolio RESOURCED Available!!!
Posted August 2, 2010 by k_c_ in Justseeds & Member Projects
Justseeds Artists' Cooperative has released the highly anticipated project, RESOURCED, a portfolio of 26 hand-made art prints that explore the devastating effects of resource extraction and environmental devastation. The collection provides a critical look at what people can do in defense of the planet. Graphics have always played a vital and powerful role in exposing injustices throughout history, and RESOURCED follows this tradition, offering urgent messages about sustainability, environmental justice, and clean energy. Included in the portfolio are some of today’s most exciting street artists and poster makers, including Gaia, Chris Stain, Favianna Rodriguez, Armsrock, and others. Artists collaborated with organizations to produce images illustrating topics around environmental destruction, food sovereignty, workers' rights, Indigenous struggles, and examining the effects of mountaintop removal, oil extraction from tar sands, hydro-fracturing, mega-dam projects, mining, over-fishing, and much more.
Making Images for a Campaign: Bark
Posted June 9, 2010 by icky in Campaigns
Bark is an Oregon-based environmental group that is primarily concerned with preserving and protecting the wild areas around Mount Hood. Roger Peet, Pete Yahnke, and I partnered up with Bark and Taring Padi to work on a giant portable print to discuss the proposed Palomar Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Pipeline that would run from the Oregon Coast and then through the Mt. Hood national forest (after extraction in Indonesia). We were taken on two Bark field trips, the first was a hike through some pristine forest which the pipeline is proposed to run through. And a second trip, where we got to meet people whose homes and livelihoods would be effected by the pipeline and its construction.
For the upcoming Justseeds portfolio I wanted to keep working with Bark. I called and asked if I could produce some more images for their campaign against the LNG pipeline.
Alto Arizona Art Campaign
Posted May 11, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
There is a large gallery of some incredible designs, responding to the Arizona legislation SB 1070, over at Alto Arizona and in their Facebook page.
Arizona is on the verge of enacting the most anti-immigrant legislation the country has seen in a generation, SB 1070. This is a bill which apparently mandates racial profiling. This bill allows Arizona law enforcement stop and search any person that they have “probable suspicion” may be “illegal”. SB 1070 is quite literally intended to terrorize immigrant families and force “self deportation”.We are hopeful Governor Brewer will consult with her legal counsel, issue a veto, and spare Arizona the expense of defending an unconstitutional, unwise, and odious bill in federal courts. But we will not rely solely on hope. We urge all artists who are opponents of this bill to TAKE ACTION and create a IMAGE. The images will be used as part of our online viral campaign for ALTO ARIZONA. Selected images will eventually be published as prints to generate revenue for this campaign with consent of the artist.
Details:
Create an image that shows your opposition to SB 1070. Keep in mind the effect that this bill will have on immigrants if fully enforced.
Make sure to include the title of the bill in the work which is: “SB 1070”.
Send all submissions and questions to
orders (at) hechoconganas.com
Specifications:
Image size must be 18x24 inches with a 1/2 inch border all the way around.
The reason for these dimensions is because if in the future your image is chosen to be published the image is ready to go.
Jesus Barraza & Melanie Cervantes designs above.
Progress on the Project
Posted April 28, 2010 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Here's some pictures from the ongoing Large Print Project in Portland. Icky, Pete and Roger have begun carving a 3' x 10' block of lino to make a counterpart to the Taring Padi print that Roger brought back from Indonesia a couple months ago. 
Mapping of Texas Private Prisons
Posted April 18, 2010 by k_c_ in Campaigns
Got this from a friend that does Inside Books Project in Austin. Its for those of you that like maps and hate prisons.
We are pleased to announce the launch of our new interactive map of Texas' private prisons. Texas is home to more than 70 for-profit private prisons, jails, and detention centers, and Texas Prison Bid'ness covers the details of this sordid industry.The new map gives readers a chance to see which private prison corporations operate the most prisons in Texas. The map also includes contact information for each facility, and the "facility pages" and "company pages" will track all our upcoming posts related to scandals and news involving specific private prison companies and their facilities.
The map was developed by Chadwick Wood at Coffeeshopped.com and has many additional features for people researching the private prison industry in Texas.
Printing with Taring Padi
Posted March 30, 2010 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Here's a little photo essay showing the printing process used by Indonesian print cooperative Taring Padi, including images from all stages of the process, from sketching to carving to printing. I had the chance to help print some copies of this massive block, which is the Taring Padi half of a project addressing issues related to natural gas exploitation on both sides of the Pacific: the three Portland Justseedsers (Pete, Icky and Roger) will be working on their half in the coming month. We'll be working with local nonprofit Bark to promote exhibits and displays of the two prints in towns along the route of the proposed Palomar gas pipeline this summer. Enjoy the photos!
Sketching the initial design on MDF hardboard.
IVAW protest recruiting stations in Madison with Mud Stencils
Posted March 18, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
IVAW taking mud stencils to the recruiters in Madison, Wisconsin from Dan S Wang on Vimeo.
Dan S. Wang has shared some incredible video footage of an IVAW mud stenciling action in Madison, Wisconsin that took place on March 17th, 2010 - the anniversary date of the bombing of Baghdad. Aaron Hughes, along with Madison IVAW chapter members Todd Dennis and Nathan Toth, placed anti-war mud stencils at the front doors of military recruitment stations in Madison.
Montreal Artists Against Israeli Apartheid
Posted March 5, 2010 by Jesse_Purcell in Campaigns
500 Montreal artists issue public call to support the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid…
Today, a broad spectrum of Montreal artists are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and supporting the growing international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli state. Last winter, the Israeli state launched a violent military assault on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, leaving over 1400 Palestinians dead, including over 300 children. Despite the official end of military operations, the blockade continues to this day, with devastating consequences for Gaza’s residents.
Over 60 years from the beginning of the ongoing Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from historic Palestine through Israel's creation, Montreal artists are united in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice.
Undocumented youth immigrants walk 1500 miles for their DREAMS. They need your support!
Posted March 4, 2010 by Favianna_Rodriguez
All Gaby Pacheco ever wanted was to finish college and teach music to disabled children. Brought to the United States by her parents as a young girl, Gaby has excelled in school, done extensive community service, and become an accomplished musician. But in spite of her hard work, she’s excluded from the workplace solely because of her immigration status. And she’s not alone. Her story is like those of thousands of other immigrant children who every day are robbed of basic opportunities to live and thrive in this country.
So on January 1, 2010, Gaby decided to walk. She and three fellow students, Carlos, Juan, and Felipe are walking 1,500 miles from Miami to Washington, D.C. to call on policymakers to fix a failed system that has kept them and millions of other immigrants in the shadows, with no pathway to a better life.
They call this their TRAIL OF DREAMS and they need your support. It easy, click on the link: http://www.Trail2010.org/action
After walking 600 miles, they recently entered the hostile territory in the Deep South. Last week they encountered an anti-immigrant rally led by the Ku Klux Klan. Today they walked straight into Gwinnett County, Georgia -- home of Sheriff R.L. “Butch” Conway, who is notorious for his anti-immigrant policies. Conway is known for being one of the most aggressive law enforcement officials to employ the 287g program, which authorizes local police enforcement to act as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
The Story of Cap & Trade
Posted February 18, 2010 by k_c_ in Campaigns
While doing some research on tar sands(see below for info) for the Justseeds 2010 portfolio-Resourced, I came across this video. From the folks that produced the "Story of Stuff", is the Story of Cap and Trade. It was produced for last Decembers UN climate talks that happened in Copenhagen. The website is incredibly user friendly, making materials easily available for download. A good example of how a website can disseminate media for campaigns.
The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo.
The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about cap and trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you.
Chrysa Koukoura-overfishing designs
Posted January 22, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
I came across these designs, by Chrysa Koukoura, while researching campaigns for the upcoming Justseeds Portfolio-Resourced.
We are hoping to pair each participating artist with an organization/campaign to create a graphic image and poster. We are working with a broad theme, resource extraction, and I am curious about current campaigns tackling the harvesting of fish from the ocean.
If you have any advice please contact
blog at justseeds dot org
Save the Gloo Factory!
Posted January 12, 2010 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
My good friend Dwight, owner-operator of the Tucson multi-functional art/community/print space the Gloo Factory and allied enterprise Peace Supplies has been struggling against eviction from his crazy downtown space for years now, in the face of idiotic plans for redevelopment. At this point it looks like he's going to lose the space, but he's energized to find a new spot! A vacant lot with a big steel shed! Dreams of a Quonset hut! Located in the city of South Tucson, away from the boondoggles of Tucson proper! To accomplish this, he needs our help. Take a moment to navigate to the Save the Gloo Factory website and make a donation. Tucson's radical print infrastructure will thank you.
Copenhagen Banners
Posted January 10, 2010 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
The 800 individual letters (in solar-panel font) that I helped to print for Katherine of SEA Change Gallery here in Portland were stitched together and made into banners in several different languages, which were then carried in marches during the climate forum. You can see some more photos of the banners at the SEA Change Gallery site.
300th Memorial Posted to GhostBikes.org
Posted January 9, 2010 by k_c_ in Bikes
Photo by Philipp M. Rassmann/NYC Street Memorial Project
Pablo Pasarán Saturday, August 8, 2009 Age: 26Location:
35th Avenue and 21st Street
Astoria
Queens , NY
United States
Pablo Pasarán, was delivering food on a bicycle for a restaurant when he was killed by Martin Ocasio, driving an SUV. Pablo was an immigrant from Mexico who lived in the Bronx. He left behind three children.
Ocasio was being chased at high-speed by the NYPD, who had observed him making a drug purchase nearby. He ran into a parked car, and then into Pablo, who was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
In addition to drug possession, Ocasio was charged with multiple offenses in connection with hitting and killing Pablo, including involuntary manslaughter.
SEA Change Banner Project for Copenhagen
Posted December 3, 2009 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Here's a couple of photographs from an epic day of screen-printing, Roger of Justseeds and Heather of Flight 64 cranking out hundreds of individual letters for Katherine Ball's (of SEA Change gallery in Portland) banner project. 
N30: Climate Justice Actions
Posted November 30, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Campaigns
One week before the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen open, and on the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) protest in Seattle in 1999, major demonstrations, teach-ins and civil disobedience took place in cities around the U.S., Canada, and beyond.
For updates on the actions that took place today in Chicago, NYC, Boston, Denver, Greensville SC, Whitby, Ontario, and numerous other cities; See:
http://www.actforclimatejustice.org/n30-day-of-action/reportbacks-day-of-action/
Chicago:
Ontario:
Washington DC
3 Rivers, 6 Rings, 19 Libraries, No Less!
Posted November 19, 2009 by mary_tremonte in Campaigns
The latest in the Sustain Pittsburgh Public Libraries saga...this bit of cheek comes from the brilliant mind of my library collaborator, harnessing the Steeler spirit. I silkscreened 100 of these last night and hope to do another run soon. You can contact me at mary @ justseeds.org to get one, they are free! The City of Pittsburgh will be voting on December 14th on funding for the libraries that will make or break the four scheduled branch closures, and staff cutbacks from happening. Contact the mayor and your city councilperson and tell them to support our libraries!
Public Ad Campain Strikes Again!
Posted October 26, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
BoomCrash Collective
Sunday, October 25th was the Public Ad Campaign's second whitewashing and takeover of unsanctioned billboards in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Public Ad Campaign acts on the assumption that public space and the public's interaction with that space is a vital component of our city's health. By visually altering and physically interacting with the public environment, residents become psychologically invested in their community.Outdoor advertising is the primary obstacle to open public communications. By commodifying public space, outdoor advertising has monopolized the surfaces that shape our shared space. Private property laws protect the communications made by outdoor advertising while systematically preventing public usage of that space.
Josh participated in part of the previous action, writing about it on the Justseeds Blog here. By Sunday evening the NY Times had noticed and published A Battle, on Billboards, of Ads vs. Art.
The above billboard was done by the BoomCrash collective, on N7th & Bedford Ave in, knowingly amidst many of the unfinished luxury residential projects in Williamsburg. Yet unknowingly on the 80th anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash.
Reports of 350.org Day of action-Oct 24th
Posted October 25, 2009 by k_c_ in Campaigns
On October 24, 350.org organized the most widespread day of political action in history -- over 5,200 events in 181 countries -- to call for a clear solution to the climate crisis: reducing the level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere below 350 parts per million.
There's a ton of photos of the 350 campaign on the 350.org Flickr page. I found the one to the right to be one of the more powerful "actions". The undeniable human impact is illustrated along with the gathering of humans to characteristically form the 3-5-0.
This campaign has been interesting to watch and exciting to see the grassroots mobilizing around such a clear message. I'm not sure of the campaigns efficacy, it has been covered in plenty of media. Human activity and impact on this planet is definitely something that needs to be acknowledged. It may be a good jumping off point for most people, and especially legislators, around the world to discuss such matters. It is most definitely a problem that isn't going away.
Maybe a goal for the demonstrations in Copenhagen could be to make sure all the representatives attending come to some sane agreements, representing all our interests, before they are allowed to leave.
Go U.C.!
Posted September 26, 2009 by molly_fair in In the News
On Thursday, September 24th actions against the budget cuts, fee hikes, layoffs and furloughs at University of California campuses took place throughout the UC system. Workers, graduate student employees, staff and faculty held a strike, walked out, and demonstrated in defense of public education and fair labor practices.Under the cover of the summer months, the UC administration pushed through a program of fee increases, enrollment cuts, layoffs, furloughs, and increased class sizes that harms students and jeopardizes the livelihoods of the most vulnerable university employees. According to one analysis, with the next round of proposed fee increases (32% over the next year) UC would be funded more by student tuition than by the state, effectively making it a private university. Even with furloughs going ahead for many UC employees, management is laying off workers, cutting services, and planning to reduce in-state student enrollment to make room for nonresidents.
from indybay.org
The strike continues...
350 Campaign and Tck Tck Tck
Posted September 19, 2009 by k_c_ in Campaigns
I recently met with one of the organizers of a creative campaign that hopes to influence this years round of climate talks in Copenhagen.
While petitioning world governments isn't my ideal of social change I understand that a variety of efforts need to be applied to change our behavior. There is hope that whatever groundwork is laid during this organizing will be useful for future campaigns.
They will be doing a handful of actions in the next week concurrent with the UN General Assembly in NYC. While you're at it you should check out tck tck tck there are a handful of events and actions in NYC for Climate Week
Using design to simplify and explain
Posted August 27, 2009 by k_c_ in Campaigns
Liquefy This
Posted August 7, 2009 by roger_peet in Environment
Here's a slightly out-of-date flier I designed for Portland-area environmental group BARK and their campaign against the proposed Palomar pipeline, part of a massive network of interconnected energy development schemes slated to overrun the estuaries, forests, and farmlands of the Portland/Astoria/Mt.Hood/Columbia River region. It's all part of a plan to bring Liquefied Natural Gas to California via Oregon. Why via Oregon? Well, the politically savvy and comparatively wealthy Californians for whom the gas is intended have resolutely opposed and defeated all the proposed gas terminals on the California coast. Washington's done the same; the only one on the west coast so far is in Baja California. Less money, less power? That's why they're coming to Oregon! Two large LNG terminals are planned for the Oregon coast, one in the mouth of the Columbia near Astoria, and one in Coos Bay. Both will have massive impacts on local areas, requiring astronomical security provisions and ensuring some large measure of environmental destruction. Part of that destruction will be the pipelines that are slated to be laid through the forests of the region; the lush firs, spruce, hemlock and pine that make up the land's green mantle. Hundred foot wide permanent clearcuts? No problem? Tunneling under upwards of forty creeks and rivers? Okay! Destroyed farmlands, annihilated wildlife, industrial accidents? Yessssss! This is a wonderful example of capitalist strategy: there is, as yet, no large corporation involved in the planning of this. It's being executed by a gaggle of suits in a boardroom somewhere, drawing lines on a map and estimating cost-benefit ratios, growth projections, and flow potential. It is the rarefied atmosphere of infrastructural planning, cynically imposed on the land by economic analysts. Liquefied Natural Gas is popular all over (although not everyone is super enthused) and promises to bring us a warm, green, sustainable future where nothing ever goes wrong.
Stop The Tar Sands
Posted July 30, 2009 by colin_matthes in Environment
I recently went to see Propagandhi play in Milwaukee. At this show I first heard about the Tar Sands, a dirtier more toxic way of producing oil than usual. Some basic information about the Tar Sands, links to more info, and a sticker design I made about the Tar Sands are below.
In the Canadian Boreal forest just downstream of the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains are the Canadian tar sands. The region contains some 2 trillion barrels of oil, but getting to it will mean destroying an area larger than the state of Florida.
Tar sands consist of heavy crude oil mixed with sand, clay and bitumen. Extraction entails burning natural gas to generate enough heat and steam to melt the oil out of the sand. As many as five barrels of water are needed to produce a single barrel of oil.
Tar sands oil is the worst type of oil for the climate, producing three times the greenhouse gas emissions of conventionally produced oil because of the energy required to extract and process tar sands oil.
The tar sands creates a toxic landscape for first nations people and local people, threatening Indigenous rights, public health, and water quality.
There will be many new pipelines running through the us/especially midwest.
http://ran.org/campaigns/freedom_from_oil/spotlight/tar_sands/
http://oilsandstruth.org/
http://www.ienearth.org/
RUST at Youth Peace Rally + Justseeds Image Gets Used!
Posted July 23, 2009 by shaun in Inspiration
This week we took our RUST youth print group to a "youth peace rally" organized by the MGR Foundation and Teens Against Senseless Violence (TASK). The kids in our group were printing posters for TASK on the spot, handing out their designs as well as teaching folks how to screenprint hands-on.
I was surprised and excited when someone in the rally handed me this brochure for the Human Rights Coalition's Fed-Up! branch here in Pittsburgh - the front of the pamphlet features Justseeds' artist Nicolas Lampert's "Missing" poster design!
Testure: Animal Torture, Skinny Puppy video edit
Posted June 20, 2009 by roger_peet in Environment
All the talk of waterboarding, stress positions, walling, psychological assault etcetera, has put me in the mood for a little perspective. Bush endorsed "enhanced" techniques, Obama hasn't put a stop to them, oh! The wringing of hands. Folks, torture is normal. Waterboarding is for the weak. Let's have a look at some REAL torture, of the sort that culture demands. This is some of the worst shit ever.
Click here to have an unpleasant experience.
Profane Relics: Early Research
Posted June 9, 2009 by roger_peet in Environment
My colleague Ryan Burns has been hard at work on an ambitious project of late. It's to be a massive reliquary of the Congo mineral wars; a huge slab of excavated central African soil, displayed as if it were an archaeological find shipped to a research center in a massive crate. The dig reveals layer upon layer of exploitation and devastation, destroyed forests, rent cultures, annihilated wildlife, and gruesome paramilitary struggle for control of the stream of minerals.... 
These minerals, hacked by hand from beneath the Congolese subsoil by teams of preteen miners, make their way through unscrupulous chains of corporate commerce into all our modern high-tech devices, our computers, our cellphones, blackberries, i-phones, x-boxes, playstations, anti-lock brakes, and so on, and so on.
We are all complicit in this, and the fact that I'm blogging about it is the ultimate irony. None of this dissemination of information is possible without the grim calculus of total destruction that has been wrought on the lands, life and people of the Democratic Republic of Congo during the past twenty years. Blood is on our hands.
Profane Relics will be on display at the Sea Change gallery in downtown Portland, Oregon, starting in July. More details coming soon.
