CONTENTS

1) Press Release
 
 
********** FLYER ART NOTES **********
 
Artists, 
We are publicizing our activities big-time (see press release below). I will be at the 
Community Media Workshop's conference for non-profit professionals on Wednesday and 
Thrusday. This is a big opportunity to meet the media, locally. Our story is told below. 
Thos who help us out and are available often find themselves interviewed by the media. 
All who come through our Screen Print Workshop for Artists are invited to showcase 
their art on our cable TV program that is coming in July-September. Please ask me 
about this.
c drew
 
PRESS RELEASE FOLLOWS
The Release on our letterhead is attached. Distribute to all you know in the media 
and beyond. 
 

 
Artists, 
The Community Media Workshop's conference for non-profit professionals on Wednesday 
and Thrusday was a blast. I put your art in front of many journalists in print, 
radio and TV. 
 
NO WORKSHOP SUNDAY JUNE 19th.
June 17-19 I will be in Ohio putting your art (if you have a design on one of our 
flyers) infront of the grass roots media at 
 
 
LETTER FROM THE FIELD
REVIEW

In Flyer Art Notes 3 Letter from the Field Anti-abortion protesters accept our political 
art, likely due to my "America Bless God" t-shirt design I wear which they interpret 
differently than I. This day begins with great expectations which are dashed by a complete 
rejection of the T-shirt Art Flyer Exhibit by the "waiting line" in front of the Chicago 
Institute of Art (see FAN #3). 

CONTINUATION

I finish passing art to the anti-abortion propagandists with their huge displays and cut 
around the corner heading around back. It is then that I realize I had on my "America 
Bless God" t-shirt design. Did the Anti-abortionist think I was one of them? Did the 
line think so too? I made this design in reaction to the initial bombing of Baghdad 
and all those who chanted God Bless America" blindly ignoring our naked aggression. 
I exchange t-shirts swiftly and head on. 

Around another corner where the school tours mill about before entering the tour or 
loading a bus to return I approach two different group of children. The closest 
group is mostly white and huddled tightly together. "Art?" I ask and hands protrude 
which I begin to ladle art into.

"Don’t take that!" a stern thin blond lady in her mid-forties snaps.

"Art?" I pass three more Flyer Art works to outstretched hands. 

"Don’t take anything from that man," she tells her class. "Leave us alone." She snaps 
at me." This is my first rebuke by a teacher for passing out art. 

"You bring these children to the Art Institute and you refuse to allow them this Flyer 
Art experience – can you tell me why" Her class needed the Anti-Racist T-shirt Art 
Contest Tour art badly from what I could tell. The teacher stares away from me, not 
recognizing my question. I shrug and move on.

The group milling in the center of the Plaza is larger and more spread out. The 
teachers and students are very mixed ethnically. They are receptive to my "Art?" 
question. I make sure to pass to the teachers first. When some kids see the 
interest the first to receive the images have they seek me out. The Flyer Art 
exhibit is not chased off with this hip, urban class. They dig it!

Down the way by the doors the college art students use at the other end sits a 
single student. He gets all my attention. My standard rap is smoothing out. The 
Flyer Art show is explained along with our free Screen print Workshop for 
artists. Students in school are so involved by classes, work and their social 
life that a community art workshop is a big leap to make. One day they will 
leave school. If they begin to pursue their visual art then is when we are more 
likely to be seen as the opportunity which we are for an artist.

Back on the street, I set my sites on one last group of children gathering to 
board their bus across Columbus Boulevard. With Flyer Art pre-fanned to deliver 
fast service, I approach the school tour. Again I target the adults first. 
Again, this group is diverse. They too are eager to participate in the T-shirt 
Art Flyer Exhibit. Happily I satisfy their appetite for T-shirt Art Flyers. 
Then I ceross into the park to find a resting spot to reflect on my experience. 
In the park I find a tree root shaped like a seat and I sit. 

What about t6hose abourtion protestors display method? Would we have to gain 
city permissiont0 do something like that? Naturally our method would not be so 
expoensive. We’d print our images on Kinko’s plotter and use clear packing tape 
to strengthen the edges. These images could be stapled to wood frames made with 
the cheapest 1"x2" pine. Or better yet, we could make scrolls that are super easy 
to carry by bus or El Train. But would we want to do what they are doing? When we 
attract the same number of volunteers to do the T-shirt Art Flyer Exhibit, we will 
reach many more people on a more intimate level then by standing passively beside 
large graphics. Maybe a few large scrolls with the flyers would create a greater 
presence. Ideas come from the experience of exhibiting. 

Today I learned a lesson in "context" wearing my "God Bless America" t-shirt. It 
takes on its meaning from the environment it appears in. At a peace protest its 
meaning is different from when worn to an abortion protest. 

How is the T-shirt Art Flyer Exhibit different from the anti-abortionists 
propaganda? Propaganda is "The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause 
or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such 
a doctrine or cause. Material disseminated by the advocates or opponents of a 
doctrine or cause." How does propaganda differ from personal opinion. The 
anti-abortionists are following a script posing, with organizationally created 
images, with text created by a committee, for the purpose of limiting the 
personal and human rights of women based on a narrow religious interpretation 
which they feel they have the right to apply to everyone, especially those not 
of their belief. What is fact and what is opinion in this statement? Is 
it propaganda? 

The T-shirt Flyer Art Exhibit is made up of individual visual statements and 
opinions assembled by those willing to attend the Screen Print Workshop for 
Artists and distributed with the purpose of creating discussion and comparison 
of the various opinions of the artists involved. This is clearly a bottom-up, 
grassroots process. This is a public art event. Artists have opinions like 
everyone else. We have a right and, in times of social crisis, a duty to 
speak-out with our art.

Another question interrupts my thought. Was the line reacting to my t-shirt, 
to my informal dress, to the context of the abortion protesters or to the 
forum of the T-shirt Art Flyer? This needs further exploration, I decide. 
I will try again another day to serve the "waiting line." 

The stump is getting hard. Rising to my feet I make for the El Train. This 
humble T-shirt Art Flyer Show is over. Tha-tha-that’s all Folks!

VOLUNTEER FUN
Help us Pass out art Friday (6/10). This week the T-shirt Art Flyer Exhibit 
moves to St. Michael in Old Town  Celebration on Friday evening. In 2004, 
nearly 20,000 patrons attended the summer's best outdoor party! We will 
meet at Cleveland and North Avenue at 6:00. Let me know if you can volunteer 
by calling 561-7676. 

Every Wednesday evening meet at the American Indian Center in our Screen 
Print Workshop to inventory t-shirts and other desperately need tasks around 
the workshop. 

Help build and maintain the Screen Print Workshop every 4th Saturday of the month. 
Co-op policy meeting the last 20 minutes for workshop time every Sunday we meet




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