AFTER THE ELECTION by Janell Cannon

AFTER THE ELECTION by Janell Cannon

Wire frame of a campaign sign, and other scraps.
Born and raised in Minnesota, and a Southern California resident for 35
years. Have been a graphic artist, children's book author and illustrator
for the past few decades. Before that, cleaned motel rooms, did auto body
work, green house labor and was a janitor. I like drawing better than
knucklebusting or cleaning up after messy people.

Each time an election year comes around, thousands of campaign signs sprout up alongside roads and on medians in busy avenues. They shout YES on this and NO on that, and declare who is right for the job for some level of community governance.

This altar is made from the wire frame of one of the many campaign signs that get left behind after the election. A piece of drywall scrap serves as a tablet on which I stamped words and sentences that represent things that I believe all humans want in their lives--and those things which politicians promise time and again throughout human history in their desire to rise to power.

The vertical stream of red words describe attributes of humans that have a way of eroding all of the things that we want from life and which seem to keep most political promises from ever being kept, and human society from transcending poverty, injustice, corruption, war and other maladies that have always seemed to plague every nation to varying degrees from time immemorial. The stamped-in words and sentences ultimately blur into nonsensical patterns, but the dynamics behind them are always the same, regardless of language or era.

This altar was built as a place to contemplate and call for the ability to transcend the barriers to peace, respect, integrity, honesty and sanity among all people.