Transcript
Ali Ward (0:00)
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Carol Wells (0:30)
Oh, hey, it's your friend's new boyfriend who makes really good onion dip. Alie Ward, come along with me, if you will, to Anaheim, California, to a little place called WonderCon. Now, if you have heard of the annual Comic Con convention In San Diego, WonderCon is kind of like its younger, scrappier little sister. And it takes over Anaheim for a few days every spring with like tens of thousands of people in this big convention center full of booths and comic book art and film stalls and collectibles and artists like making and signing work. Also, adults in capes. Join me. All right, we're in front of the fountain at WonderCon. So far, we've seen a Loki. I've seen a Westworld lady. Oh, there's a Winona Rider from Beetlejuice costume in the red. The wedding outfit. Oh, with a Beetlejuice accompaniment. We've got a lot of Pokemons. We got some Star Trek outfits. Plenty of those. That's a Captain America, but he's Captain Mexico. Oh, I love that. Check that out. That guy's Captain Mexico.
Ali Ward (1:31)
He's my favorite one so far. I love the Captain Mexico.
Carol Wells (1:34)
It's like Halloween, but it's in March and no one's dressed like a hot dog. Everyone's specific, and I like that. I loved it. Now, another perk was that I was there to moderate a panel with a dear, dear friend, C. Andrew hall, or Andy hall, who you may remember from an episode we did in 2021 about his environmental nonprofit. He founded it. It's called Functional Magic, and it commissions incredible artists to create gig poster style artwork that's collectible. And because of that episode we did and y'all ologies listeners, that first print run he did in 2021 sold out. And Functional Magic was able to donate $25,000 to the Coalition for Rainforest Nations. And just a side note, Functional Magic was then known as the Drawdown Design Project, but has since been renamed. And Andy says that Functional Magic is dedicated to spreading this unapologetic hope about our shared future VI that they put out into the world. So we'll link that original episode in the show notes because it's a great look at climate solutions and staying proactive with optimism. So Andy organized a panel at WonderCon about activist poster art. And I was more than game to help. I was like, the time, the place, I'm there. Also on the panel was somebody named Carol Wells, and she is the founder and executive director of the center for the Study of Political Graphics, which is amazing. It's this archive in Los Angeles that collects and preserves and documents and exhibits, exhibits posters relating to these movements of social change. How many posters they got? They got over 90,000 posters. So if you have ever had a message you wanted to get across to strangers or a passion that you wanted to scream from the rooftops, but you know that art goes farther, this episode is for you. So free admission. Let's get an update on Functional Magic's work, which involves a launch this week of a T shirt line. That is gorgeous. And let's soak up the decades of history of activism art with Andy and Carol as we cover some history of protest art. Different approaches graphically, who it speaks to, camouflage among ads. Where does street art go to be archived propaganda, the tiniest, mightiest posters, collectible gig posters for the climate, and how the anti war movement galvanized so many artists. Also, short warning, we do discuss a few images of war photojournalism in this episode. So get in. We're going postering with this field trip to WonderCon activism and art. Welcome to the best panel all weekend. I'm so excited to be here. My name's Ali Ward and I host a podcast called Ologies. And I always love to start off by finding out where your passion comes from. So I would love to know, Carol, where did you first get a spark for political posters and activism?
