Christmas and the Effect on Political Cartoons

The Christmas season is coming up soon and the effect it has on political cartoons is very interesting. While the Christmas season is full of cheer and good spirits, it seems like the opposite occurs within the realm of cartoons. The Christmas season seems to take out the worst in us, even though it's supposed to be when we are supposed to be at our best. 

Charlie Brown is a beloved character who makes his appearance during almost every holiday, even the minor ones. Here Charlie Brown and his little christmas tree have been turned into a political message. His tree is labeled as the health care reform, and the ornament holding the tree down is labeled as compromise. It shows here that Obama does not compromise (referring to the text) about his reforms, and it seems to ruin the spirit of the holiday. Using a beloved character seems to relay the message much more effectively, because you know who they are talking about and how the cartoon actually portrays the message because you know the story associated with it. Using black and white instead of color also enforces it. Charlie Brown is a semi depressed character living in a life which is bright and colorful, where he always learns a lesson and what's most important in life. Showing this image in black and white could decrease the ability for Charlie Brown to learn from this situation and cause him to lack in his ability to continue in the happiness of his life. This can push him back into his depressed self with no way out, even though in all the Charlie Brown cartoons he finds a way. The snow fall in the background shows how peaceful the rest of the world is while this is occurring, and how it seems to only affect those who are paying attention. 

This image discusses the political correctness of our society, and how we all seem to have to be politically correct when interacting with each other. Here, even at the presence of the baby Jesus and his family, the 3 men (not the wise men due to the text below the image) cannot seem to give a proper greeting to the man whom the season of Christmas is named after. This is showing that our society feels the need to be too politically correct, and how potentially it could be a social downfall. Even though we are all different, and celebrate different aspects of the holiday, we should be able to understand that and give each other the greeting we wish and not feel as though we can't say Christmas. I feel as though this image portrays this message effectively using the image of the Holy Family, even if one isn't a believer in Christ. This just shows that no matter the individual, everyone worries about being politically correct in situations.

As the Christmas season approaches there will be more and more interactions within political cartoons and different messages that need to be expressed. Using the holiday of Christmas will bring about many different viewpoints on beliefs and cause disagreement during the happiest time of the year. The images which will continue to arise will be extremely interesting, especially with all the recent political news. 

Wake Up, America!

I found this image while searching for political art. I found it extremely interesting and immediately wanted to discuss it for multiple reasons. They are so many different references within this image, that it brings across such a deeper meaning to the piece. 

The obvious image in the front is the statue of liberty, which is drawn into a real beautiful woman. Her face is soft and lips are red, though I personally feel as though her hair should have been black for the image she is trying to portray. Here she is referencing Snow White, with her pale skin and red lips through her deep sleep. Here she is sleeping while America is plummeting into chaos. Within the fairytale of Snow White there are many hidden meanings. Analyzing fairytales brings these meanings to life, and understanding them is extremely important for this women. 

Snow White is put into sleep because she is not ready to be a women. Her sleep symbolizes the part of her maturity where she starts her period and is on her way to becoming a woman. The queen doesn't want her to be a woman, because she will take over the kingdom and become a mature woman and fully be fairer than her. She is put to sleep through a period because she isn't ready to take on this role as a woman, and really needs to sleep to mature because she is not ready. 

The meaning of this image is clear once the analysis of the fairytale is understood, however the artist goes much deeper than that. The red background and the red of the elephant which she is holding seem to relate back to the Snow White fairytale, which is so heavily incorporated into this image. Lady Liberty is asleep while our country is seemingly going through it's own maturity, however in this image the maturity seems to be demise. The country is failing, such as Snow White failed to become a woman at the right time and was sent into a sleep and how the queen wanted her asleep so she could not become a woman, Lady Liberty is being held back as well. Through the demise of the country, she is also not ready to actually go in the right direction. It seems to show that the country needs to fall before she awakens and can build it back up. 

The crosses in the background can also deal with the idea of Snow White's innocence. She doesn't understand death because she has not matured. This might show that Lady Liberty's sleep is partially of her own doing like Snow White's. Snow needed to mature, and Lady Liberty seems to not want to deal with the issues at hand. That is why America is asleep, they are not noticing what is happening. They cannot mature and understand what is going on. 

The stuffed animal held in her sleeping arms is an elephant, representing the Republican party. The innocence of Snow White is shown through the stuffed animal in her arms, but also the innocence of the country. Our country hasn't matured enough to fully understand as a whole what is going on. That is what the image is portraying. 

Using fairytales is an extremely interesting way to incorporate political ideas. While it is unusual, and hard to understand without understanding the analysis of the tales, the idea comes across extremely easily. Even if the analysis isn't understood, the text brings the message across. Fairytales are extremely interesting to me, and I love to analyze them. Finding a political image which can be analyzed using a fairytale was extremely interesting and effective for the message.

Thanksgiving

Political artists have been using the recent thanksgiving in order to promote images and use them towards relaying messages. These messages are portrayed through humor as well as simplistic messages. Using thanksgiving as a theme seems to reach to a wider audience, because almost everyone celebrates thanksgiving. It is a holiday for giving thanks and loving family, but is that always the case?

This image shows the family giving thanks and counting their blessings. Each person on the table is giving thanks in different ways; facebook, twitter, texts, etc. The words rhyme as the audience reads across the writing, which also enforces the meaning of the image. The older generation state that the modern technology cannot enforce the message of thanksgiving, which is very important for the image. Since these electronics keep us from the true meaning of the holiday. The image is shown with a family sitting around a home cooked meal on the table, each one of them except the older generation on some sort of electronic, showing the gap in technology with their age as well. The tones within the image are earthy, which also could reinforce the meaning of thanksgiving and giving blessings for all we have. The image is simply drawn, however there are details given to each figure. While this could make the image hard to relate to, it actually makes it easier to relate to. Because with a family being portrayed, that's all that's important to get the message across. 

This image relates Obamacare to an uncooked turkey, which has yet to thaw and yet is about to be cooked. The frozen turkey isn't prepared, but it's trying to be served to the people who came to thanksgiving, which could represent the country in general. This image simplifies Obama while giving him his significant features in order to ensure who he is. His expression is nervous, and he doesn't want the audience to know that he is lying. The turkey obviously needs more than a little time, and while it is de-thawing it is no where near complete. Incorporating the recent debate and enactment of Obamacare, and while it doesn't work, using the images within this cartoon is helpful when portraying the message. 

This cartoon uses color to portray its message. The chef, who is portrayed to represent Obama, is serving a shiny silver platter which looks as though it contains a big mean (labeled promises) when in actuality what is given is just a white bone (labeled reality) which is absolutely nothing than expected. Uncle Sam is the man who is being served. He has a disappointed expression on his face, which is easy to read even with the simplicity of the cartoon. It's also interesting that the wine glass looks as though there isn't actually wine in it, there is only water. Not serving wine in a wine glass also brings the message further forward, even though it is such a simple, small detail. This image seems to portray that there have been so many promises, but they have been left empty because while there is reality, really it isn't much. 

Using holidays within political cartoon allows for a new and different way to portray a message. These holidays happen every year, which makes using them as a theme even more interesting because they can be related to so many different modern circumstances. Every year something different happens politically, and using holidays that occur every year allows for a larger audience to be reached because the majority of them celebrate these holidays. 

Visual Image from the Affordable Care Act

Obamacare has brought about a shift in the healthcare system as well as creating a lot of tension between the political parties. Political cartoonists have started to incorporate this into their cartoons, incorporating different meanings and different viewpoints of this system. It's become a primary focus in a lot of political arguments, and whether or not there is agreement with the policy there are interesting images which come from this plan. This image to the right is the Obamacare symbol, which was found through google, which is visually interesting on its own. Obama's new logo is featured at the bottom with an image looking like the medical symbol is on top of it. This here shows that both of these images are working together for the people, through the colors and the background it shows that they are working through America. All the people in the backgrounded are whited out and don't have faces, showing that anyone could be one of those people and that are behind this system. This image is open and suggests that so many people are behind the Affordable Care Act, even if this isn't the case for everyone. The insignia is centered within the image as well, giving a balance within the image. 

This second image is a political cartoon about Obamacare, which is much more simplistic in how it relays the message. The image of health is created through the use of a syringe, a common tool within the medical field. It is extended to shoot through the entire body of the individual within the image. This individual used is Uncle Sam, who represents America and is used in many different political images. The use of red white and blue in this image also represents America, though the white background creates a different visual field. Having the white background makes the image of Uncle Sam pop. The meaning of the image seems to show Obamacare shooting through Uncle Sam's body, and causing it to bleed. If Uncle Sam represents America, than it is saying that Obamacare becomes a wound in America, makes it bleed.
This is a second political cartoon which I found about Obamacare. This image is of an older woman holding a pill bottle which represents Obamacare. This image works like a commercial for medicine, where the medicine is the focus and it looks all bright and cheerful. However at the bottom of these adds there is small letters which show the side effects of the medicine, which here shows the side effects of Obamacare. The colors in this image are dulled bright colors, with Obamacare bolded in red. The use of red makes the Obamacare look dangerous, since when relating to medicine the color red is not a positive thing. The added wording at the bottom of the image, added at a later date, also makes a pun on swallowing pills and relating it to America.
It was interesting searching for Obamacare comics or images, because there weren't very many positive ones. I think this is because political artists like to make fun of what is going on, and rarely support it. They like to expose every flaw in every system, and through doing this even the smallest of negativity becomes big, which makes political cartoons extremely successful. 

Japanese Soft Power

Japan is such a unique country that I have always been interested in. The way that Japan uses it's soft power (a cultural exchange on international levels) is extremely interesting because there are so many ways in which they can do this. The most common way that affects young people such as myself is through anime, manga, video games, and the "kawaii" (meaning cute in Japanese) culture.
The soft power of Japan affects our culture in so many ways that it seems we don't even notice how much is actually there. I know so many young people that watch anime and they read manga constantly, loving every moment of it. The impact of video games is even greater, because the majority of these games with the cute little characters comes from Japan; Pokemon is one that people don't always realize comes from Japan. Such as the image to the left, how many people represent this little guy? A large majority of people seem to be able to remember "Pikachu" and know his name. His influence on my generation especially is amazing, and while it doesn't affect every person it does effect a large amount. Japan's influence on our country is amazing. But how does this play into politics? What political influence does this use of "soft power" seem to have?
Young artists use anime in order to incorporate politics into something entertaining. An anime which I have watched called Hetalia. This anime uses political and historical events in order to create a historical satire. Each of the characters personifies a country in a humorous way, and interact with each other as they move through history. The anime itself is deeply researched and seems to be extremely accurate, especially with the personifications of the characters. While this anime itself can be seen as a political outlet, especially with the characters, the artwork that I have found reflecting this anime is a better example of soft power. To the right is a cartoon drawn by a fan representing two of the countries of China and Japan. It by itself is a pure example of soft power because the comic is focused around that exactly. Visually it's laid out as a manga, with the panels and speech bubbles. The style of the artwork also represents the "manga" or "anime" style of work that we know and can easily recognize. The funny thing about this image is that it specifically relates to soft power, and that Japan is using their culture to manipulate china. I just thought it was ironic that I found an image that relates to a topic of discussion within the topic of this post.
The anime of Hetalia becomes the perfect example of soft power within anime because its entire purpose is to discuss history or politics in a humorous way. Though Japanese soft power goes beyond this one anime, there is so many different ways in which this occurs.

Visually, anime is quite appealing for many reasons. Even the anime that were made in America still seem to represent the Japanese manga style of artwork. The style of this artwork is easy to characterize. Usually the characters have quite large eyes, even when their eyes are smaller they are still quite large. The faces are simplified as well as the expressions on the face. They show the rang of emotion through simplicity, because the artists of anime and manga have to draw so much. They make things cute, the girls are thin and generally look cuter than the men (i.e. bigger eyes and larger feminine features) while the men look more masculine (in most cases). The characters themselves are different for different series, because they appeal to different audiences. The range in these series are the same as our genres, the style itself interests so many different appeals. The work to the left represents an anime (as well as a manga) series that I loved for so long, Fruits Basket. I felt as though it represented Japanese soft power personally because it was one of my favorite shows and what got me interested in Japanese culture. The girl in the front is small and cute, happy face with large eyes. She has soft pale skin (which in Japanese culture is idealized) and is the one holding the animals. The men in this show represent different types of men to appeal to many different girls (since this is a "girl" anime). Visually this image represents the idea of anime and manga well in my opinion, and I feel as though it helps in the representation of Japanese soft power. However they are many different examples of this, too many in fact it was hard to choose one.
I know personally, as stated previously, I was deeply affected by Japanese soft power, especially in the progress of my artwork. This is a drawing that I did in 2009, which seems like it was quite some time ago especially if you look at my studio work now. As an artist I feel as though I should be ashamed of this image, however it's something I did when I was interested in Japanese culture, and it was something I did early in my relationship with my current boyfriend of 5 years, which is something we can look back on and see what all I've made for him. I chose this image also because I thought it was funny that I chose to dress us in University of Kentucky clothing and I was still living in Indiana at the time. Here I chose to represent my relationship with my boyfriend using the manga style with the large eyes, bright colors and even my current hair color was affected by the anime style. This shows soft power well, because I incorporated it into my early artwork, though I have expanded far beyond that it was still a frequent factor in my early artwork. I have dropped the style and moved to realism, however I still occasionally draw using this style. This style just isn't practical for a studio art major, however I am proud that this is how I learned to draw early on.
The use of soft power that Japan brings to America is quite surprising because there is just so much, their culture intertwines with ours and we don't even seem to realize it. It's personally affected me, and I feel as though it'll continue to incorporate itself into the American culture.  

Just a Bill...?

I find it curious that I have found two different political visuals referencing the old School House Rock's video of "I'm Just a Bill", one as an image and one in the form of a video. This cute little rolled up document, tied with a red ribbon and a red, white, and blue button representing who he is, is an icon in a sense. Those who have grown up watching School House Rock or seeing these videos shown within the classroom, know who this little guy is, even I remember my parents showing me these videos and using them as a tool to help me learn. The original video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0

It's interesting that this little guy has become represented once again during Obama's presidency, and I feel as though the way in which bills are treated under Obama, since it seems as though his presidency has been a lot of bill passing. The first image that I found was while I was scrolling through the "humor" section on pintrest. I thought that was interesting since politics doesn't seem to play a big roll at all within that website. The image was taken from the original video where the bill and the boy are sitting on the stairs of capital hill talking about how a bill becomes a law, or how it works. The humor behind this image is represented using profanity and large bold letters. Apparently the bill here is stating that no one seems to know how a bill becomes a law anymore in this day and age, however I feel like it goes beyond just this presidency. Society itself seems to not be concerned with politics at all, and they seem to just let it happen without any sort of care. Though this image was taken from the video, the spot at which the video was stopped to take this image is extremely important when it comes to analyzing the visual impact of it. The bill looks hopeless in this image, as he wants to become a law. He sits there, waiting, exhausted from his journey. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKhXxvT9iak : This video is a parody based on the little bill, discussing the health care reform. This video was made back in 2010, and yet it still used this school house imagery. While re-created in both visuals and words, the character remains the same. No matter what the intent of the video, taking the imagery from a classic video always brings our minds towards this video. It's interesting that the video purposed for education could be taken so many ways over, in a way to continue the education of the people. Since people seem to pay more attention to something that is a satire as opposed to something legitimately education, it's smart that parodies are created using an educational basis; especially since the target audience would be anyone who had watched these videos when they were young. Through this it can be understood why this imagery is important, as well as why the imagery continues.

Explosive Birth (Extra)

http://www.noupe.com/inspiration/50-stunning-political-artworks.html

This work of political graffiti art struck me. I couldn't find any information about this work, other than it was just an idea of the artist in order to portray a message. I feel as though this image could have multiple meanings behind it, through it's simplicity and design. The use of simple black and white has quite the impact, though the "whiteness" of the wall is not completely there. 

One meaning from this image which deeply saddened me was childhood bombers. I've heard stories from war veterans as well as from people who knew them about children who were handed grenade by military men of their countries to go and attack the American soldiers (and probably has affected other countries, however I've only heard of the American soldiers). These young children were forced to go bomb the American troops, causing the troops to be ordered to shoot. These children don't know what they are doing, they are innocent victims in this situation, which in turn causes such pain for these soldiers. In order to protect the troops they are forced to destroy these young children, which were born into these situations just by living in these areas. That meaning of this work of art is beyond saddening, because I know soldiers who have been forced to shoot children, and it deeply wounds the soldiers forever.

However, while that is the immediate meaning I receive from this image, there are also many other meanings which can be determined from this art. A pro-life message comes to mind as well, because of the relationship between these two small objects. The grenade in this image can represent the womb, but more importantly the mindset of a women in an unexpected pregnancy. Her body becomes a grenade, because depending who the woman is she could decide to terminate the pregnancy. The smallness of the child is highlighted here, because the baby fits perfectly inside the grenade. The size shows the figure of a baby, how we see one in the womb, and yet it's so tiny. That itself shows that this is a child, even inside the womb. This comes to my mind because of the amount of abortions have been compared to a genocide, to a war, and that also relates to my first immediate message.
Another message which I perceived from this work is the destruction of childhood. The grenade represents childhood as the child's life is attached to it, and it feeds from it. A child's innocence and their spirit of childhood is constantly attached to them, but it is fragile and could easily be destroyed. I think that this message could also represent that. 

The simplicity of this image could also bring multiple more meanings, however those are the two that I determine. Visually this image could take on any meaning, even ones not even pertaining to children. It's stencil like drawing allows for that.