Propagandanista

Propaganda? Advertising? Art?

"All art is propaganda.", or so wrote George Orwell.

"All art is political", so said Mao, or was it Hitler? Or Donald Trump?

"(The Movie industry) is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!"
Ah, yes, that was The Great Pumpkin.

The origin of the word propaganda comes from the efforts of the Catholic Church to "propagate" the faith. From Congregatio de Propaganda Fide in 1622. Thus, in simplest terms, whatever messages and meaning you wish to promote, and how you do it with material you create and disseminate, artistic or otherwise, is propaganda. Radio broadcasts, music, theatre, film, art, advertising… think of all the possible swag you can get from a conference. That's propaganda. It took on a negative connotation when governments created extensive information programs, especially between the Great War and World War II. That political relationship and the advent of the profession of Public Relations cast a malodorous pallor over the word and the tactic of using any means necessary to inform (or more particularly, to misinform) the public.

When I heard writer Alan Moore say, "All art is propaganda for a state of mind," he was speaking about an artist's imperative to see reality in their own way. To really know themselves and how they perceive the world. I didn't realize then that he was riffing on George Orwell's essay titled "All Art is Propaganda". I've only ever read a summary of Orwell's essay, but I'm guessing you have to consider the word "propaganda" in a broader sense and that the art in question does contain a message or a meaning that the artist shares to influence the audience. A problem arises when a message may be intended as apolitical (an image of a sunrise over a beautiful field) but may still be interpreted as political (“That tree hugger wants to save fields from development!”). Even in the simplest way, when we create and share art, whether visual, literary or performative, we're communicating something about ourselves and the state of our minds. In other interviews, Moore has advised that an artist has to know their view of reality. They have to know their understanding of the world and what they want to say about it. That worldview is how they come to understand their voice. This is the part that resonates with me, particularly because I'm not sure I know my voice.

Whether I draw, paint or photograph something, I know what I like and what I want to see. I also can't avoid it. When I pick up a pencil, the result that comes from my hand, eye and brain is going to look a certain way, whether I like it or not. There comes a time when you should stop fighting that result, accept it and lean into it. I suppose that is my "voice". Unfortunately, I still feel like I am fighting everything I create. Many times, I simply don't like it. There are obviously plenty of artists' work I admire, and that work sets a standard for me. While I love the work of Jean Giraud, Kate Beaton, Jillian Tamaki, Adrian Tomine or Jaime Hernandez, I don't want my work to look like theirs. For some reason, if I do ten drawings, I might only like one (this is entirely aspirational, it's probably more like a 20:1 ratio). It's widely accepted that creative people will quickly disregard their past work and feel that their new work is so much better (sometimes to the disappointment of their followers). In that way, I always feel that the next thing I do will be my best, but also I'm chasing something, though I'm not quite sure what it is.

Which brings me back to the propaganda of my state of mind. Imagine that your "self" is like a political party of one; a church of one; a school of philosophy of one. In that sense, whatever you create, you're promoting the ideas of that singular party, church or school. We're each the head of our own state of mind. I suppose the state of your mind is always changing with whatever mood or revolution you've begun. Whatever represents that state of mind will change in kind. Perhaps at some point, I'll find my flag, wear it proudly, call it my propaganda and display it on the walls of the national gallery of my mind.