A weak fingered open fist slap in the face

I recently stumbled on an article about Jesse Owens that changed the way that I looked at a window of history. If you don't remember Jesse Owens was the Olympic track and field athlete who defeated the German Luz Long in the 1936 Olympics. He reportedly disgusted Hitler so much with his win that he was rumored to storm off refusing the shake hands with a black man. He was also rumored to say 'The Americans ought to be ashamed of themselves for letting their medals be won by negroes. I myself would never shake hands with one of them'. He became the defeater of the evil racist Nazis. The problem is that Jesse Owens himself had said that the history of the "Hitler snub" was exaggerated and that the way that he was treated in his own country and by his own President that was the most disappointing to him.

Jesse Owens came out of the Olympics using his celebrity to make what money he could, it was the only thing he could do to survive. A man that I grew up being told was a hero for the benevolent United States against the malevolent Axis of evil seemed to have a very different view of his country than we did at that time. Here is a quote from this article about Jesse Owen's view on the racially turbulent 70's in America:

"At the 1968 Mexico Olympics, two black American sprinters, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, used the moment after receiving their medals to give the black power salute. 'The Black fist is a meaningless symbol,' said Owens.

'When you open it, you have nothing but fingers - weak, empty fingers. The only time the black fist has significance is when there's money inside. There's where the power lies.'

Later, he retracted his criticism and said that militancy was the only option for American blacks. 'Any black man who wasn't a militant in 1970 was either blind or a coward.'"

This is an image that I created for this article. WWII was America's most just war but when watching the history channel we sometimes forget how the people in our own country were treated in the backs of busses, being forced to take service elevators or in the Japanese internment camps. Hitler was a man that needed to be defeated but it doesn't mean that we should forget our own history.

The Article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1205901/Forget-Hitler--America-snubbed-black-Olympian-Jesse-Owens.html

St. Ho Chi Minh

We just recently got home from a two week vacation in Vietnam. The thing that I found most interesting is the adoration that the people of Vietnam have for their leader Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the North Vietnamese communist revolution that fought against the south, and after his death was able to unite all of Vietnam under communism. The people of Vietnam, especially in the north, speak of him with such love that you'd think that he was given special leadership at birth and never waivered from one goal of unifying their homeland.

The stories of Ho Chi Minh began to sound like tall tales. He never had a child and some say never gave into the tempation of sex, he lived the life of a commoner working odd jobs all over the world learning every step of the way, he scaled mountains in his old age and at the end of his life spent it in solitude feeding children with the wild fruits that grew around his home. This all happened when his country was in the middle of war.

To the people of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh was a hero and the ideal communist man. Whether or not Ho Chi Minh really did live exactly as the people of Vietnam believed is unimportant, they needed the idea of him after a thousand years of being controlled. It made me think of the flaws we overlook or care to never mention about our national and religious heroes.

Spirit airlines

Recently we visited my girlfriend's family in Florida. Like most people we are looking to save money, so we decided to fly Spirit airlines since they were the cheapest flight.

From beginning to end they did not disappoint. From the moment we arrived to where we had to wait for our flight we knew that we had got what we paid for. From a distance I could see their logo that just screamed "we pinch pennies", which is why I adjusted their logo to remove the subtlety from their design. The flight was cramped, the terminal was messy and nothing was complimentary.

I don't consider myself snobby about these things and I am very sure that I'll fly with them again, because I'm cheap. I just thought that they did a great job of getting their message across that they're a cheap airline, they might as well just come out and say it.

Ira in Odosketch

My Gradeschool and College friend Ira Couvillion has finally created his own blog.

iratheindefatigable.blogspot.com

I always count on Ira's political ideas to be backed up with a lot of research and well thought out. I can't wait to start reading his ideas and will probably be citing quite a bit of it for my own illustrations.

I decided to draw an image that he has used for the social networking sites that he had been part of, and with living so far from him now it's really the identity I know him as at this point. I did the illustration on Odosketch, which my friend Daisy showed me. It's a great place to play around on when you don't have charcoal or graphite at hand.

http://sketch.odopod.com/

the Beer Summit

President Obama hosted the "Beer Summit" yesterday. President Obama shared one of the oldest known beverages with Professor Gates and Officer Crowley. I made this quick illustration to symbolize people from different backgrounds coming together for something as common and universal as beer.

Beer has been around for thousands and thousands of years, as far as history has been recorded. It's an ancient beverage that has brought together kings, Gods and common men from all over the globe. Perhaps things would be better if all common misunderstandings and bias opinions were discussed over a beer at a neutral watering hole, instead of yelled from a podium swaying others to look past our similarities to only notice our differences.

I don't know where I fall on the Gates/Crowley incident, and maybe they where both at fault. What I do know is that I love the idea of Obama bringing them together to discuss it over a beer. I wish that other people with much stronger differences could be brought together to discuss their problems with each other over this ancient beverage.

Ratehounder

This is a logo that I created for a website that compares interest rates to give you the best rates in the area. I'm currently working on it's branding and changing it's site completely.

The client wanted the feel of a lot of popular logos being used right now on the web, so I worked off the idea of percentage rates while trying to keep the style he was looking for.

Man on Wire

Man on Wire is a movie about Philippe Petit, a name that is quite ironic because Petit is quite larger than life. His descriptions and movements really carries this film along and pulls you into his story.

Philippe Petit was a young man who became a very talented tightrope walker. When he heard about the plans for the twin towers in New York, he knew that it was his life's mission to conquer those towers. With the his showiness and charisma he convinces friends to help him in his, and now their, journey.

The film is crafted like an old bank heist movie. Luckily his crew filmed much of the planning those decades ago so there is lots of film for them to work with. We find ourselves sucked into the events leaving us balancing on the edge of our seats. I found myself more worried about our hero Philippe walking on a string in this movie than I have about a giant space rock destroying life on earth or the sun becoming extinguished in other movies.

All of this leads up to something so magical and beautiful as man walking on the clouds and standing on the shoulders of the gods. Doing so with style and a smirk.