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.