In writing an article for DAME magazine on the art and culture of the Occupy movement, I've been in contact with a number of amazing artists across all sorts of disciplines, from music to cartooning to painting to poetry. One of the posters I'd always especially admired was "Tip of the Iceberg," created by Dave Loewenstein, a muralist, writer and printmaker based in Lawrence, Kansas. He's done wonderful community artwork, including leading the creation of a mural in Joplin, MO – planned before the devastating tornado that nearly destroyed the town. Residents picked up brushes amid the chaos of rebuilding, and together, painted hope.



Loewenstein was one among many artists who were compelled to document the Occupy protests. His posters are among the movement's most iconic – pure in form and intent, powerful metaphors. Dave mused in an email, "No one asked me to make a poster. It was a natural response... I felt a strong affinity for both the process (horizontal) and purpose (to create a more equitable and caring society), and I wanted to support and help articulate those ideas."


He continued: "I hope that my posters, and the many other excellent ones being produced, will help spread the spirit of the movement and begin to bring to it a poetic visual language that amplifies its many messages and inspires those involved. I believe that visual art, like poetry and song, has great power to energize, condemn, and question; and that part of my role as an artist, living here and now, is to have my work speak in service of the struggles and movements I support."

'occupy (the 99%)' - 30 October 2011 

Contemporary English painter Guy Denning publishes a blog entitled "A Drawing a Day." In it, he has extensively documented Occupy protests from around the world, often using photographs and news footage for reference, and isolating a single subject from among the crowd.


He emailed me today, and after (completely unnecessary) protestations that he was a visual artist, not a writer, and that it was probably best to just "share the artwork," articulated his thoughts on the Occupy drawings:


"All I was trying to do with the drawings was to take a more personal look at the people within the protests. The media so often have an agenda of portraying all such protest, particularly on western soil, as being chaotic violence and vandalism led by criminal extremists. I wanted to show that these protests were populated by ordinary people who are finding themselves in extraordinary times." 


As the West cheers populist movements like Arab Spring, it is interesting to see how uncomfortable we are with our own "uprisings." While perhaps not all of Occupy's demands are pragmatic  – or even possible – it is important that Americans continue to protect their right to organize. Check out Denning's blog, look into the faces of ordinary people, exercising their rights in extraordinary times, and be grateful for the discomfort our freedoms afford us.