The Beginning of the Tahoe Activist Artists
The helplessness and shock I experienced after the 2016 election triggered a cycle of creativity I haven’t experienced since I was a student. I picked up an old canvas, and started to paint with no clear intention, just an energy. Two hours later, a larger than life Albert Einstein was looking down at me, his eyes expressing a knowing sadness and concern. I knew then that I needed to gather together a community of artists to speak out with the skills that we have, to contribute in the only way we know how. I met with my friend Kim Wyatt, who was already planning to move in this direction, and together we made a plan. We invited as many creative people in our community as we could think of, and arranged a meeting at Bona Fide Books in Meyers.
We called ourselves the Tahoe Activist Artists, and began to meet every month to discuss how we were processing our responses to current events. We wanted our art to contribute to a wider circle of compassion, instead of feeding the divisiveness that is tearing apart our society, both here in the US, and abroad.
A decision was made: In order to connect with the wider world and our community, we needed to organize a public event. “We the People: Tahoe Artists Visualize a World of Conversation and Connection” was our first project. We decided to incorporate the “March for Compassion” into the event to allow the Tahoe community to express their hopes, fears, anger and solutions to the rapidly shifting reality we find ourselves in.
All artists donate a percentage of their profits to charities and causes that they feel connected to. We believe that leading by example is a way we can begin to effect positive change, and that by acting in opposition to the greed that motivates our current leadership, we can take a step towards a future we want to see.
