You could say that it all began here. This is where it began for me. Up until this piece I was working on becoming a popular third tier sci-fi artist, but then something happened to make me change direction.
I have been making my extra money by going to science fiction and fantasy conventions and selling my artwork there. One such convention I attend is RavenCon. I love going because I did some art for them and it is everywhere at the convention. It is held in Richmond, the capital of Virginia, in April. In 2009, something funny happened: the newly elected governor, Bob McDonnell signed an order declaring April as “Confederate History Month.”
That was offensive. However, it was too late to back out of going, so I decided to make this in protest. What happened next was fun; people either really liked it or hated it. I started carrying around the Articles of Secession and the Cornerstone Speech by Alexander Stephens, who became the Vice-President of the Confederacy.
If you are not familiar with the Cornerstone Speech, he said “Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.” The Articles of Secession also are filled with language that says that whites are better than blacks and that blacks deserved to be slaves. The Civil War was about Slavery, plain and simple, and saying so really angers people who disagree with that fact.
This image has made me friends and enemies alike. At a convention in Raleigh, NC a friend told me they were at a party and someone was very angry that I put this image on a shirt. They said that they didn’t want to have anything to do with someone who was that offended by this image. At another show in Towson, MD, I had a pleasant conversation with the White Student Union. Yes, you read that correctly.
After the success of this, I began to think what else can I do to create smart, political images. Between what you see here and Right About Now, I think I found the answer…
If you like the image, you can order it as a tee shirt! Please contact me at RightAboutNow2 at Gmail dot com, and we can work out payment (At least until I get my online store back up.)
If you like what you see, support it.