Call for Art

Posted on May 8, 2012 by shellyl

Attention Artists!

We are looking for art submissions for our gallery here: Anti-war Artists, Environmental Artists, and Occupy Artists. We are also especially seeking out art for our upcoming art show in August, 2012.

There is now a website for the UPCOMING ONLINE ANTI-WAR ART show, and the show will TAKE PLACE on this site: ART SHOW SITE

The show will be awesome so spread the word. We are, as always, pushing for peace and environmental and economic justice before the next Presidential election. The anti-war movement has been lost in other movements lately, so this is an attempt to jump-start the movement! All kinds of art will be accepted, but we primarily want to emphasize anti-war art.

Submission deadline: August 15th. Check this site often for more information. I’ll be sending out emails to participating artists soon, but new anti-war and environmental artists are very welcome to be part of this.

Also wanted, as always, articles for this blog . . . . If you want an author account here, you must be a submitting artist. Just contact me and you can write articles or submit news about war, environmental topics, Occupy movement, etc.

Soldiers as Victims of War

Posted on April 26, 2012 by shellyl

Young people who are victims of war are not always in the foreign country being invaded or occupied. Sometimes they are the soldiers of the invading army. Some of the volunteer soldiers who believe the lies and join the military wanting to go to Afghanistan to fight “the enemy” are victims of the wars too. Other young people join the military to get a job and/or an education. It’s a career choice, and today’s economy, they are being taken advantage of, signing up for what sounds like job with decent pay, and decent benefits. For some people it’s a way out of poverty. For others it seems like an easy path to U.S. citizenship.

The military uses whatever it can to nab new recruits, including downplaying, or ignoring, what soldiers actually do. In some cases, recruits are lied to about benefits and deployments. Soldiers are even told they will never see combat, when that is untrue. The Pentagon certainly uses all of these ploys in trying to snatch new people to feed to their war machine. The following is an article on this topic by David Lindorff.

Trolling for Kids: The Empire is Using Hard Times to Help it Recruit More Imperial Troops and Cannon Fodder

In the militarist society in which we live in these latter days of American Empire, all soldiers are “noble heroes” who have signed up at “great personal sacrifice” to “defend our freedoms,” and we are all expected to pay homage and a great deal of our hard-earned money to support them, both in their brutal efforts to subjugate people in desperately poor parts of the world, and (when they leave the service, either to take jobs in the private sector or to live out broken lives if they were wounded) as veterans.

But let’s be honest about all this.

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Stretch the Strangle Hold

Posted on February 4, 2012 by shellyl

This video was brought to my attention by the artist. The painting is called “Stretch The Strangle Hold” by American painter Joe Lovett

More info from the artist:

“Stretch the Strangle Hold, a new painting by American Painter Joe Lovett, a work spanning seven years from 2004 until its completion in 2011 protests the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Stretch the Strangle Hold is my response to the lie of war, my mission is to convey a visual message for the general public as well as a visual reminder that we as a global society have a responsibility to speak out against inhumanity, I seek the truth through artistic activism.”

For more info visit http://www.nvokestudios.com/slideshow/stsh.html

Is the US Readying for More War?

Posted on January 8, 2012 by shellyl

There is new work in the gallery! Check it out. And if you are an anti-war artist, please contact me using the contact form above. The world needs to see your art now more than ever.

Even as the Iraq occupation is ending, it seems the U.S. is preparing to start new wars. The disturbing news below comes from RT News, just in time to cheer us all up for the New Year. Of course, getting ready for a new war is anything but cheery news. Unfortunately, it seems that whoever is the American “Commander in Chief” – it hardly matters when it comes to invading, bombing and policing the world. The election next year will probably not change anything, since someone from one of the two War Parties is sure to be elected. The story from RT News:

“Without much media attention, thousands of American troops are being deployed to Israel, and Iranian officials believe that this is the latest and most blatant warning that the US will soon be attacking Tehran.

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Has War with Iran already Started?

Posted on December 15, 2011 by shellyl

The Iraq War officially ends today! But don’t get too excited — another one is (probably) just around the corner.

The U.S. is currently engaged in drone strikes in at least six countries.

It seems like no matter who is in the White House in the US, there is an unofficial devotion to the idea of “perpetual war”. Pursuing peace seems almost quaint to the politicians in charge. There is an entire generation of American children growing up who don’t know what it’s like for their country to be at peace or even to pursue peace. Our politicians don’t talk about peace anymore — they talk about war, and “defense spending”, and our “warriors” and “homeland security”. When did talk about peace stop? I don’t remember exactly when, but it did stop.

With all the current meddling and unrest in the Middle East and beyond, US politicians now seem determined to start yet another war, or at least help with one that our “special ally” wants to start. The question is whether or not it’s even avoidable at this point. It may have already started. According to The Independent: (another article submitted by one of our artists)

Paul Vallely: War on Iran has begun. And it is madness

The parallels with Iraq are disturbing: we are convinced of a sinister threat to the West and we have a dodgy dossier to prove it

It’s no secret that Israel wants to bomb “nuclear facilities” in Iran, which would not be an easy task, since they are scattered all over the place.

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Exhibition for Freda in Las Vegas

Posted on November 4, 2011 by shellyl

New exhibit in Las Vegas — “Keep on the Sunnyside”

An exhibition of new paintings by Anthony Freda (an artist at Antiwarartists.com) will be appearing at Trifecta Gallery in Las Vegas from November 3-25th, 2011.

Freda’s images of wry humor and ironic social commentary have been published in Time, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, The New York Times OpEd page and many other publications. He has received recognition from American Illustration, The Society of Illustrators and Communication Arts illustration annuals.

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American War Machine Videos

Posted on October 29, 2011 by shellyl

Thanks to Mort Cohn for this first video. NSFW.

This brings up the question: what will it take to stop the American war machine? I don’t know. Our voting doesn’t stop it. Our participating in government doesn’t do it either.

Another interesting thing to listen to is General Wesley Clark in 2007, talking about a classified memo he was told about that laid out plans for the US to attack 5 or 6 countries in five years. That speech was given to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. The video is below.
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War Poem

Posted on October 22, 2011 by shellyl

Below is the best-known poem of the First World War. Submitted by artist Mort Cohn.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen
8 October 1917 – March, 1918

See notes here.

Sculptor Joins AntiWar Artists

Posted on October 17, 2011 by shellyl

Announcing a new artist that has joined our ranks here at Antiwar Artists. He is sculptor Morton Cohn. His website is here and above you can see an example of his ceramic art. You can read more about his art background here.

All artists are welcome to send in new artwork for your gallery whenever you have some you’d like to add and new artists are welcome too. I know there is a lot of anti-war artwork out there now, more than ever.

New additions from Anthony Freda are also in the galleries.

Navigating the Aftermath Arrives

Posted on September 27, 2011 by shellyl

The first anti-war art show (to my knowledge) to come to central Minnesota has arrived right in the heart of downtown. The reception is at the Paramount Theatre on Wednesday, September 28th. The art show is free of course, as is the movie about the war refugees called The Unreturned.

I have two paintings in the Navigating the Aftermath art show, one of which is shown in this ad for the event, which has been touring Minnesota all year. If you are in central Minnesota, you are invited! The aftermath is that of the Iraq War, and the movie, which is also free, is called The Unreturned. It’s a good movie, socially relevant and important, and most people who see it learn a sad truth about the Iraq war. It created 4.5 million displaced people who now have nowhere to live. In that respect this will be an eye-opening event for some people.

Though most of the artists in this show are from Iraq or the Minneapolis area, there are several local artists who have work in the show too. My contributing artist page for this tour is here, where you can see some of my other anti-war artwork. These pieces are all shown in the Antiwar Artists gallery too.