An Open Letter to Artists About the 2024 Election
We endured a long election cycle full of twists and turns. Our social media feed was dominated by election news. They told us that democracy was on the line.
Both sides accused the other of tyranny and fascism. We were told that we were on the brink of World War 3 and this could be our last election. The entire world watched on election night, nervous and fearful, believing whoever was elected would change everything.
Some stayed up late into the night to find out the results. Some woke up the next morning to a sinking feeling of impending doom, while others felt triumphant and hopeful. The weight of this decision for most felt pivotal and extremely consequential.
Most of us have been swept up in a lie of propaganda that politics decides our future. It is politics that will decide if we will live by tyranny or by liberty. Our fate wholly depends on either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.
Even those outside the U.S. have believed this lie. We have no control. We are subjects of our political system. Fascists will come and rule with an iron fist while we huddle in fear waiting to be locked up. We have believed that the very fate of our destiny is completely controlled by a party of Democrats or a party of Republicans.
The True Builders of the Future
Plato said, “Show me the songs of a land, and I will show you her laws.” Politics is not our ruler. The Democrats and the Republicans wield zero power. It is our prophecies that rule the land—the prophecies that are embedded in our songs, our poetry, and our paintings. Our future lives on the end of our brush. All politics are subjugated to our art. The politics of the last 30 years are the offspring of postmodern art and the war on Beauty.
Kandinsky spoke of a cultural pyramid where artists stood at the apex as prophets of the age, ushering culture into the new day. Below them were the inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Below this rung were the builders, engineers, and physicians. Near the bottom of the cultural pyramid are the politicians, lawmakers, police, and military in service to those above. Below this level are the masses. If we don't like our politics, we must look to the top of the pyramid.
The Fall of Beauty
The 20th-century high art was obsessed with deconstruction. Light, perspective, form, composition, color, and even spirituality were all deconstructed in one art movement or another in the 20th century. Artists challenged the notion of Beauty and aesthetic. They created what was ugly, contorted, twisted, and deranged.
The innovators, entrepreneurs, engineers, and builders followed suit and made our buildings and constructions ugly and oppressed. The artist prophesied for the elitist in order to validate his ego, and therefore our politics toppled the populist ideals with an elitist superstructure.
Breaking Down Barriers
But something profound occurred at the end of the 20th century. David Bowie identified it in an interview in 1999 with Jeremy Paxman when spoke about the phenomenon of the internet. He said, “We are on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying…..The barriers between creator and audience will be further eroded…I embrace the idea that there’s a demystification process going on between the artist and the audience….The internet has a communal power that is helping media become more and more about the audience and less about monolithic era-defining artists like The Beatles.” The internet is a decentralizing agent that circumvents Kandinsky’s pyramid and brings the masses and the artist on one level.
The elitist system cannot centralize power with this structure. The elites cannot control the art that is created, seen, and sold. The elites can no longer control the narrative. The masses desire Beauty, liberty, and truth. The internet guarantees populism rather than elitism.
Art is above politics. Artists by the sheer act of creating are by nature non-political. We pull the intangible into the material. We create what one second ago did not exist. We artists work intuitively from the ether, universe, or God. We make manifest what is whispered in heaven.
The Artist's Call
So artists, do not worry or be afraid. Our futures live on the tips of our brushes, not the lips of our politicians. Create the world you want to live in. Paint what is beautiful, and all will be restored to what is just and true. Let Beauty reign again as we enter into a high renaissance of a golden age. Where there is creativity, there is freedom. Where there is freedom, there is prosperity for all. In this climate of liberty, the oppressors will be vanquished.
Because it is the artisans and poets who lift their songs and their creations that scatter and terrify the powers that have come to oppress the nations.
What future do you want to paint into reality?
Beautifully put. Centralised internet may only work for Artists and other users when there is no interfrence with the data, algorithm or freedom of speech. The renaissance of our souls is certainly on the horizon. For that and keeping the vibes high, I will keep creatiging beautiful art.
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Elli Milan Art replied:
yes! Beauty reigns!
God knows what he’s doing! He told me in the last few years that Trump would be president again. He said it would be in a quirky and unorthodox way.
Looking back, we can see how little he could have gotten done in the past years. God has a purpose and recognizes what many of us may not: “God doesn’t select a perfect man for the job. He selects a man who’s perfect for the job.” – Anon.
He has repeatedly told me: focus on beauty! Keep painting for it keeps you connected to me.
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Elli Milan Art replied:
yes! Beauty is Divine. What we behold we become!
It is beautifully expressed and explained from an artistic point of view.
Thank you for the inspiration and encouragement.
Thank you so much for addressing this Elli! I find so much truth in this AND I think it’s important to recognize that while yes, many of us will likely go unscathed, many other people’s lives are up for debate each and every election cycle and they don’t have the luxury of some of these ideals.
I agree that our destiny is not wholly determined by one political party, we have SO MUCH MORE collective power than we realize but only IF we are aware enough to wield it. To say though that the democrats and republicans have “0 power” feels pacifying in a world that actively needs that collective power to push back against those structures – perhaps I am not understanding what you mean there?
I’ve been part of various activist communities for years and what I’ve learned from them is that wielding both a sword AND and open stretched out arms are equally important; that activism is both tearing this place down brick by brick AND (like you say) creating the world we want right now, it’s being a dreamer AND a realist. For me, art acts as an intersection between all those things.
So in essence I wholeheartedly agree with this as 1 side of a 2 sided coin, where the other side is active and relentless resistance to power structures, laws, policies, etc.
The future I want to paint into reality is one of true collective liberation for all beings – humans and animals alike. It’s one of possibility and curiosity, of warmth and celebration.
Thank you again for this blog post, I needed to be reminded of this side of the coin.
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Elli Milan Art replied:
I agree with you! We still have our civic responsibility to vote, resist, protest, support businesses, unsupport other businesses, be intentional about what we consume etc. to each her own convictions. This is our response to the culture that was shaped before us. We just react and behave to it in an authentic way. For myself, I hope my reactions and behaviour to the here and now is in full alignment with what the Divine hand inspires me to create. I think this is living spiritually minded. Anyway, love your thoughtful response!
The words are my own heart channeled commentary. I am a child of the 1960s with metaphysically oriented parenting, from my mother in particular. My father was a mechanical engineer, but notably tolerant of my mother’s right brained pursuits.
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