Interviews

This was posted on VoyageMIA back in November. Here’s the link to see it on their site: http://voyagemia.com/interview/art-life-stephanie-mcmillan/

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie McMillan.

Stephanie, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
As a teenager in the Reagan era, I awoke to the terrifying threat of nuclear war and wrote my first opinion piece with my first political illustration for my high school paper. I became active in the anti-war movement, as well as around other issues like abortion rights and against police brutality. Much of my artwork over my lifetime has been intertwined with efforts to overcome oppression, exploitation and ecocide, and for a just and sustainable society.

I started drawing cartoons professionally in 1992. My comics, editorial cartoons, and illustrations have appeared worldwide in hundreds of publications since then (including my hometown paper, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel), and have won awards including the RFK Journalism Award. They’ve been included in exhibits at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (NYC) and other venues, plus a solo show at Cal State/Northridge. I had a comic strip syndicated through United Media and Universal for several years and wrote and illustrated several books including a graphic novel about the Occupy movement. Most recently, I illustrated a children’s book called “Songbird, Fly!” written by my partner Christopher Burns, about a bird who escapes her cage.

Chris and I currently run the Arts and Crafts Social Club, a studio in the Flagler Village neighborhood of downtown Fort Lauderdale, where we offer classes, paint-and-sip parties, and other events. We really enjoy meeting people and creating a fun atmosphere where we can all make art together! We also use it as a place to make our own artwork. During the past year or so I’ve been focusing a lot on acrylic painting, though I’ve also been playing around with all sorts of materials, from gouache to papier-mâché.

I simply love making things. I always have. My mother inspired that in me, by doing all sorts of crafts with me and my brother and our friends around the kitchen table when we were little. I’ll always be grateful to her for awakening and encouraging my creative spirit.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
Three visual and thematic elements run through my work in general (while each piece may not contain all three):

1) Social messages:

While art is fun to make and enjoyable to look at, the primary purpose of my work overall has been to help contribute to social change, by facilitating communication about the state of our world that may lead to action. I love when someone uses one of my drawings or cartoons to illustrate a flyer or on a sign at a demonstration. What thrills me most is when someone tells me it inspired them or helped them feel stronger in their own fight against the system.

2) Comics:

Because of my long stint as a cartoonist, most of my work (no matter what the medium is) contains visual elements of comics: bright, flat colors, bold shapes, humor, exaggerated expressions, words, and messages. I’ve taken to heart the well-known saying: “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”

3) South Florida:

I’m second-generation born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, FL after my grandmother arrived in 1921 as a school teacher. I love the amazing plants and animals who live in this unique bioregion, and they often appear in my artwork along with bright tropical colors.

What responsibility, if any, do you think artists have to use their art to help alleviate problems faced by others? Has your art been affected by issues you’ve concerned about?
There is tension between one of the most important social roles of art — to reveal hidden truths — and the artist’s need to make a living by selling their work in a profit-driven marketplace that operates best when those truths remain obscured. There is so much pressure for artists to create purely decorative or amusing entertainment, rather than follow their own vision and life’s purpose.

Two overarching trends are greatly affecting everyone’s situation, including artists: 1) global warming has advanced to the point that social transformation is now an urgent necessity for the survival of life on Earth; and 2) the political representatives and institutions protecting the interests of those at the top of the capitalist/imperialist system are aggressively trying to hold onto their dominance in an increasingly unstable global economy and in the face of rising popular discontent.

In this challenging context, the development of the internet has made it easier for artists to connect directly with their audiences and more readily participate in efforts to deal with our collective situation (as well as make a living). We no longer need to rely on the old gatekeepers (though new gatekeepers and obstacles keep popping up).

Even with its limitations, the internet has allowed for a flowering and democratization of the arts (and other forms of communication) that couldn’t exist earlier. Our culture has opened up a great deal and is evolving rapidly, and so many important conversations are happening.

At the same time, those currently on top are trying to push all that back in the box. But we can’t back down. We each need to do our part to ensure that open communication wins so that together we can figure out paths for a viable future.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
Drop by the Arts and Crafts Social Club during our open studio hours or the monthly Flagler Village ArtWalk (6-10pm on the last Saturday of each month except December) to see recent pieces and whatever we’re currently
working on.

The work that’s displayed there is mostly fun, colorful, and lighthearted, inspired by our tropical South Florida surroundings. I recently started an Etsy shop to sell some of it: https://www.etsy.com/shop/tropicalpop

My more political work is on my website: stephaniemcmillan.org, where I sell paintings, prints, books, and other items. Purchasing my work or joining my Patreon page (patreon.com/stephaniemcmillan) supports my ability to make more of it, which I really appreciate.

If you happen to be in Tallahassee, a few of my paintings will be included in the “Art of Resistance” show at 621 Gallery, Sept. 29-Oct. 27.

Originally published at rabble.ca: http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2015/09/capitalism-must-die-your-economic-guidebook-to-revolution

Capitalism is so, so terrible. Here are the tools you need to crush it.

September 10, 2015

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2015/06/09/kickstarter-of-the-day-stephanie-mcmillan-affirms-your-anti-capitalism-plus-goats/

Comic Riffs
Kickstarter of the Day: Stephanie McMillan affirms your anti-capitalism (plus: goats!)
By Michael Cavna
June 9 at 2:00 PM

IN HER BATTLE against capitalism, cartoonist-activist Stephanie McMillan does need funds to raise awareness of global plights through her art. And one of the reliable ways so far has been turning to the power of the crowd.

“I love the crowdfunding model, because it requires developing a strong relationship with readers, who decide what work they want to help succeed,” the Florida-based illustrator says as she seeks backing for her “365 Affirmations for Revolutionary Militants” desk calendar. “It’s a way to find out quickly if a project is a good idea or not.”

Comic Riffs caught up with McMillan, who has won an RFK Award for her comics journalism on the Occupy movement, to talk about financial models, the modes of profit and production — and which furry animals best embody her cause:

MICHAEL CAVNA: I know you’ve had success with crowdfunding in the past, Stephanie (i.e., “Mischief in the Forest”). What spurred you to turn to Kickstarter for your new project?

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http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/18/feeling-trapped-in-a-dead-end-system/
May 18, 2015

Also appeared in Red Wedge: http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/interviews/feeling-trapped-in-a-dead-end-system-cartoonist-stephanie-mcmillans-affirmations-encourage-resistance

Also appeared in Truthout: https://truthout.org/articles/feeling-trapped-in-a-dead-end-system-cartoonist-stephanie-mcmillan-s-affirmations-encourage-resistance/

Feeling Trapped in a Dead-End System?
Cartoonist Stephanie McMillan’s Affirmations Encourage Resistance

by MARK HAND

Activists and organizers for social change undoubtedly experience periods of burnout. Working long hours — typically without pay and little appreciation — on campaigns, issues and causes where victories are few and far between can be demoralizing. Some activists get so frustrated with the perceived lack of results from their hard work, the divisions within the Left, and the rampant apathy among the general public that they give up entirely and retreat from activism.

Cartoonist, writer and organizer Stephanie McMillan saw the depression, feelings of hopelessness and other difficulties faced by her fellow activists. And she wanted to do something to help people overcome these. So she started writing uplifting messages to empower individuals to continue working for a better world. She calls her inspirational messages “Daily Affirmations for the Revolutionary Proletarian Militant.” Similar to the memorable characters in her popular comic strips Minimum Security and Code Green, McMillan’s affirmations are accompanied by cute and colorful animals, plants and insects.

McMillan is almost finished writing 365 affirmations, and when she puts the final touches on the last one, she hopes to gather them all up and offer the entire collection as a 365-day perpetual desk calendar. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., native is holding a campaign that ends June 12 to raise enough money to get the calendars printed.

In mid-May, a few days after McMillan launched her fundraising campaign, I asked her why she decided to write these affirmations. The conversation then moved on to broader questions about living in a world filled with barriers to positive change.

Mark Hand: When did you start writing and drawing the Daily Affirmations for Revolutionary Proletarian Militants?

Stephanie McMillan: I started on January 1, 2014, to provide an alternative for revolutionaries to the same old New Year’s resolutions. I intended to post them every day for a year, but some of them straggled into 2015. I’m finishing up the final 34 this month, daily through June 12, to wind up with 365 on the final day of the Kickstarter campaign.

MH: What inspired you to write them?

SM: Capitalists constantly push us to want things that keep us trapped in the system and obsessed with trivialities that distract us from resistance. All kinds of support is available if we strive to make money, worship a god, lose weight, find romance.

But there is a huge lack of inspirational literature to encourage and uplift people whose lives are dedicated to social transformation. Most writing on the Left is theoretical and political — these are obviously crucial, but there isn’t much that addresses us on the ideological level, on helping us change our ways of thinking so we stay strong, on track, and motivated, that helps us establish standards of behavior that serve our goals. All we hear is the constant barrage of capitalist ideology telling us that we’re wrong, our aspirations are impossible, we’re crazy to try, and “we can’t beat ‘em, might as well join ‘em. No wonder many people feel so hopeless, depressed and overwhelmed.

I started writing the Affirmations to bolster my own resolve and strategic optimism, and when I started sharing them, I saw that they filled a strong need for many others as well. So I decided to draw them regularly.

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[Appears in The Socialist: http://www.thesocialist.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/TS-RADICALART-2014.pdf]

by Jen McClellan

CSUN did a week of lectures in October, titled “Comics v. Capitalism v. Climate.” The first presentation I caught was given by Professor David Klein and Stephanie McMillan, who spoke fearlessly about the incompatibility of capitalism and
…. well … life.

Jen:
Stephanie McMillan, you critiqued capitalism for needing exponential expansion in order to survive. You offer, in response to this destructive system, inspiration via cartoons, and suggest that transformation away from capitalism will be economic, political, and ideological. You also emphasize that the working class are the only ones that are able to offer a solution. My first question then is – if we live in a system that sucks every last ounce of energy out of its workers, (giving them less than enough to live decently as human beings) then where are they going to find the time or strength to study economics, become politicized, or develop an ideology?

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http://comicsgrinder.com/2013/09/17/interview-stephanie-mcmillan-and-activism-in-comics/#more-9985

Stephanie McMillan is an important voice. She is doing her part to make this a better world through her activism and her comics. And, fortunately for us, those two passions turn into some very compelling work. Her latest collection of comics, “The Minimum Security Chronicles: Resistance to Ecocide,” is published by Seven Stories Press. This book is a 160-page trade paperback priced at $12.71 and is set for release on October 8, 2013. Be sure to visit our friends at Seven Stories Press here and visit Stephanie McMillan here.

The following is an extensive email interview that I hope you’ll enjoy and be inspired by. What really motivates our actions? What sort of world do we accept and what sort of world could we aspire to? These are some of the ideas up for discussion in this interview.

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Here’s an interview I did for the largest Athens (Greece) daily paper, about “The Beginning of the American Fall.”

What I sent them, answering their questions, is below (I’m not sure what, from this, was actually used).

1) How does it feel to be one of the few women in the cartoon world?

It’s hard to make a living as a cartoonist, no matter the gender. In the last decade or so, being female has become much less of a novelty in the cartoon/comics world. I actually don’t think about that very much. In some instances it has probably been one factor (secondary, among others) when I’ve been passed over for jobs or received lower pay, but I can’t control that, so I move on, and keep trying a lot of different things to get my work seen and to find ways of making an income from it. My (far left) political views are actually much more of an obstacle to achieving the traditional view of “success” than anything else. Not to mention the collapse of print media. These have been much more significant factors for me.

2) Politics and cartoons. An uneasy bond?

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The Revolution Will Be Illustrated: Stephanie McMillan’s Occupy Cartoons
by Michael Arria

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-revolution-will-be-illustrated-an-interview-with-stephanie-mcmillan

History decays into images, said Walter Benjamin, but what about comics? Stephanie McMillan has been covering politics through her comics since 1992, but where does the medium fit into the era of Twitter and the 24/7 news crawl? Her new book, The Beginning of the American Fall, tackles that question head-on. It might just be the best account yet of Occupy’s birth, refusing to downplay the divisions or underscore the successes of the movement. The work wraps memoir, political philosophy, and reporting into one succinct illustrated package. The book, and her cartoon “Code Green,” the only consistant comic about the environmental crisis, recently earned her a journalism award from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights. McMillan was kind enough to answer some questions for Motherboard regarding Occupy, how her approach has changed, and what’s coming next.

Motherboard: Did you know you wanted to cover Occupy through comics, or did the process kind of happen organically after you became involved?

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Stephanie McMillan Is Occupying The Comic Book
The Huffington Post | By Arin Greenwood

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/stephanie-mcmillan-occupy-comic_n_1137636.html?ref=dc

WASHINGTON — There’s no superhero in cartoonist Stephanie McMillan’s two-part comic detailing the early days of the Occupy movement in the nation’s capital. But there are plenty of idealistic and persnickety revolutionaries in them.

“The Beginning of the American Fall” came out in November. The second part came out on Monday. Both comics are put out by Cartoon Movement, a site that’s been putting out a lot of comics and cartoons about the Occupy movement.

McMillan is from South Florida — she came to D.C. to participate in the protests, not just chronicle them. And her role as an insider comes through. The comics are affectionate if sometimes pointed looks at the people occupying D.C.’s two protest encampments — Occupy DC in McPherson Square and Occupy Washington DC, formerly called “Stop the Machine,” in Freedom Plaza.

McMillan gets into everything from the demonstrators’ hopefulness and radical idealism to the groups’ internal struggles over how to deal with the police and illustrates how annoying the consensus process and camping can be even for radical idealists.

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Here’s an interview in Hungarian in the Transylvanian online newspaper Transindex:

Rácz Tímea

A többszörösen újságírói díjakkal kitüntetett, eléggé extrém környezetvédelmi nézeteket valló lány a TOTB-nek mesélt munkájáról és nézeteiről.

Amellett, hogy környezetvédelmi témákat dolgozol fel, aktivista is vagy? Mióta, és mit csinálsz?

Igen, a One Struggle (Egyetlen harc) nevű csoport szervezője vagyok. Ezt néhány emberrel indítottam el itthon, Dél-Floridában. Egy antikapitalista, antiimperialista kezdeményezés, amely mind az ökológiai problémákra, mind a társadalmi igazságtalanságokra, valamint az ezek közötti kapcsolatra szeretné felhívni a figyelmet.

Már középiskolás korom óta – a ’80-as évek elejétől – aktivista vagyok, foglalkoztam a bevándorlók jogaival, a rendőri brutalitásokkal, a nők reprodukciós szabadságával és harcoltam az imperialista háború ellen. Az elmúlt néhány évben jobban megértettem az ökológiai válság sürgető helyzetét, és az energiám nagyrészét erre összpontosítottam. Ha nem tudjuk megállítani a bolygó tönkretételét, semmi más nem fog számítani.

Melyek a legsürgetőbb környezetvédelmi problémák szerinted?

Az egész természetes világ rohamosan romlik, így nehéz megmondani, melyik a legszörnyűbb aspektusa. Mindegyik hatással van egy másikra. A globális felmelegedés, a fajok tömeges kihalása, a haldokló óceánok, az édesvízkészlet fogyása, az atomerőművek… mindegyikük nagyon fontos, és az összessel foglalkoznunk kell.

Honnan merítesz ihletet a rajzaidhoz?

Bárcsak ne lenne ihletem, de sajnos minden nap újabb bűncselekményeket követnek el a természet ellen. Túl sok témából tudok válogatni. A problémák gyorsan szaporodnak, elég egy pillantást vetni a hírekre.

Ebben a pillanatban több millió ember éhezik Szomáliában, a klímaváltozás okozta szárazság és éhínség miatt; egy amazonasi törzs – akikkel eddig még nem vettük fel a kapcsolatot – már nincs meg, és félő, hogy a drogdílerek kiirtották őket. Az Egyesült Államokban soha nem látott hőhullám sepert végig, és még sok minden egyéb történik… Bárcsak ne lenne, ami Ellen küzdeni vagy amit kritizálni, de mindezekkel a problémákkal szembe kell néznünk,

A rajzaid közül melyek a személyes kedvenceid?

Itt nagyon élveztem megrajzolni a gyászos, apokaliptikus jelenetet, amelyet aztán több helyen felhasználtam:

Aranyos állatokat is szeretek rajzolni, ez a gyerekkönyvem egyik illusztrációja:

Ez pedig egy friss rajz a Minimum Security című napi sorozatomból. Cuki állatok és kemény politika ötvözete – a kedvenc kombinációm:

Mit gondolsz, mit szeretnek legjobban az emberek a rajzaidban, mi az erősségük?

A rajzaim azokhoz szólnak, akik kedvelik a képregényekben ritka, radikális politikai kritikát. A munkám antikapitalista perspektívákra alapoz, és bátorítja mindazokat, akik egyetértenek velem. Emellett igyekszem vicces és szórakoztató lenni, ahogyan Oscar Wilde is javasolta: “Ha el akarod mondani az embereknek az igazságot, akkor nevettesd meg őket, máskülönben megölnek.” Ha a rajzok vizuális szempontból vonzóak, segíthetnek az embereknek eszméket felkarolni. Ezt szeretném elérni.

Here’s an interview I did with SPJ’s “Quill” magazine.

* * *
Thursday, August 04, 2011
Ten with Stephanie McMillan

By Scott Leadingham

To call Stephanie McMillan a cartoonist is like calling Paul McCartney a musician. It’s accurate in all meanings of the word. But leaving it at just cartoonist (even adding “editorial” as a descriptor) comes up short. She might rightly be described as a social activist and agitator, one whose pointed commentary and analysis are conveyed most visibly through pictures and their associated dialogue bubbles. Her incisive work caught the attention of the Sigma Delta Chi Awards judges, who recognized her excellence for the recurring syndicated cartoon “Code Green,” about environmental issues. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., native studied film animation at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Next year will mark her 20th drawing regular cartoons for newspapers.

What was your first reaction to winning a Sigma Delta Chi Award?

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Can’t Make a Decision, Ladies? Call Bill Napoli.

by Mikhaela B. Reid

If anti-abortion politicians are so sure they can tell women what to do with their bodies, why not make them deal with the rest of women’s decisions? That was the premise of political cartoonist Stephanie McMillan’s response to South Dakota State Senator Bill Napoli’s comments that he could see an exception to the state’s near-total abortion ban for a raped and “brutalized” religious virgin, but not for “simple rape.”

In McMillan’s cartoon, a young man asks his sister Kranti which salad dressing she would like, to which she responds that as a woman, she can’t make a decision without calling Bill Napoli at home or at work. The cartoon contains the relevant phone numbers.

According to the Rapid City Journal, Napoli received a “flood” of calls, which he claimed were mostly “intolerable filth.”

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My Dinner with Napoli

by Nancy Goldstein – Raw Story columnist
Published: Wednesday March 29, 2006

I wasn’t sure whether to use chorizo or bacon in my paella last weekend, so I called South Dakota state senator Bill Napoli and asked him to make my decision for me.

Stephanie McMillan inspired me to contact Bill — one of the most vocal supporters of the new state ban on virtually all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest. McMillan’s brilliant cartoon, which has been making the rounds of the blogosphere, lampoons Napoli’s conviction that women can’t be trusted to make decisions about our own bodies — and conveniently provides his work and home numbers.

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