Art can combat apathy, provoke consciousness and unite people around humanitarian or political issues. Visual artists play a constructive role in society, offering an alternative narrative to a mass media and corporate culture.
          Historically, the production of art has been controlled by the ruling class, the church or the state. In modern societies, this production is dictated by a corporately controlled art market. Corporations control the means of production through sponsored museum exhibitions, corporate art collections, corporate grants and the veneration of commercial artists. Artists are forced them to adapt to the whims of the market place. Since political art usually runs in contrast to a corporate vision, political subjects are "politically incorrect" subjects in a corporately and institutionally controlled art market, and art becomes wall decoration.
          This is why printmaking is so very important, for the act of printmaking itself is a political act. Being a printmaker means one can produce his or her own images and distribute them at will. It also means one has complete freedom from censorship. For hundreds of years artists have used printmaking as a means of communication, inspiration and protest. "Printed" political art is about controlling the means of production and distribution, and printmaking has a long prodigious history of being tied to social movements, revolutions and war. Printmaking proves that the medium is also the message.
          However one feels about the subject, the fact of the matter is this: art is about life, and politics affect every aspect of our lives. Art belongs to the masses and not only in galleries or museums. I make art in order to evoke dialogue and change, to make my voice heard by all people and to challenge the assumption that art and politics do not mix.