Chamomile Tea Party

We’re Losing Our Competitive Edge subway platform ad, Washington, DC Metro, Chamomile Tea Party.

I have always been interested in the power and intersection of propaganda and design. World War II was a fertile era for both. Beginning in 2010, I started remixing old propaganda images from that period to create new images with contemporary messages about the rancor prevalent in American political discourse.

Congress has become paralyzed by partisan politics. There has been so much party rhetoric that it has become virtually impossible to pass any important legislation. And Americans are suffering. As an artist, I wanted to create messages for the “powers that be” showing that we are hurting ourselves as a country and as a people. I also wanted to give the electorate something they could use to help voice their concerns. As we saw in Shepard Fairey’s 2008 portrait of Barack Obama, the visual can be a potent tool.

I have now published over 340 of these images under the moniker the Chamomile Tea Party to comment on American political discourse. The images have appeared in a number of publications, including The Huffington Post, The Atlantic, The Nation, and PRINT magazine. They also appear in Jonathan Haidt’s book on the American political process, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. To understand the genesis of this work, read this interview in the Urban Times.

Take a look at all the images on the Chamomile Tea Party website.