Dear friends,
A friend recently said exactly what my heart knows to be true: Although we may hold different political beliefs, we can still hold one another.
I deeply believe that despite whether we are celebrating or grieving the results of the election, that we can find common ground in those pockets of all of our hearts where we at the very least acknowledge one another’s stories, wounds, and the deep layers that form who we are and what we believe.
I also believe that we can collectively stand for those most vulnerable among us. That we can hold different political beliefs, but still hold one another. My roots are in Social Work. I am a fierce advocate for healing, for togetherness, for the connections that intricately weave us to one another. There’s a reason my art shares these messages.
I love this quote from Tennessee Williams:
“The world is violent and mercurial – it will have its way with you. We are saved only by love – love for each other and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share: being a parent, being a writer, being a painter, being a friend. We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.”
And so it is. We must protect love, always. Love holds ALL of our stories, all of our identities, all of our beliefs and views and wounds and anger and celebration. We may hold different political beliefs, we can still hold one another. And Love is the container in which we can hold one another.
My work as an artist has always been to to work for all that Love stands for: healing, transition, fierce courage, sharing our light, playing big, tenderness, warrior optimism, and more.
I love this quote by Toni Morrison:
“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no place for despair, no time for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. This is how civilizations heal.”
Now, more than ever in my artist journey, I feel the call to stand with Love. Let me be clear: to stand with Love doesn’t not mean to not stand with those who voted for someone else. I am smarter than that, wiser than that. And so are you. Love wants us to dig deeper. We can hold different political beliefs, but still hold one another.
A few friends of mine have come together to start a movement.
It’s called #ArtistsForLove.
We’ve created the flyers below that are all downloadable and free. We invite you to download (click each image for immediate download), print, and/or share. Use one. Use them all! There are no rules here.
Thank you, and so much love.
If you’re feeling called, here are some things you can do to join us:
- Create your own version of these signs and share them on your social media platforms with an invitation for others to join you. Use hashtag #artistsforlove so that we can find one another. The ultimate goal is to inspire ALL artists (poets, writers, musicians, painters, graphic designers, etc) to create their own versions of these signs and post them with their downloadable/free links. And the movement grows and grows and grows. Imagine if we all did this, how much BEAUTY there would be in the world that is speaking a strong, collective voice.
- Click the images above for an immediate download. We invite you to print these, post them in your communities, perhaps share them on your social media platforms – wherever you see fit.
- Get involved. Look around your communities. And outside of them, too. Where does your heart tug? For me, it’s children. Children of all the groups listed in these flyers and more. I’m planning to do my part in elevating their voices.
Many many thanks. I can’t wait to see YOUR #artistsforlove images. Please come back and leave a comment with a link so we can find your contribution.
A couple more things I’m feeling called to say:
I’ve been hearing a lot about white privilege and how women like me who are white are somehow not allowed to speak into the issues of the groups that are listed on these images. If feel we can hold different political views, and still hold one another, then we can have different skin colors, backgrounds, and still STAND with one another. I want to make this clear: I am white. I am a woman. Because of that, I believe I DO have a certain kind of privilege, which I believe comes with a certain amount of responsibility to acknowledge those who don’t have the same privileges and to stand with them.
So much love…comments are welcome if they are in the spirit of respectful discussion. Any harmful, mean-spirited comments will be deleted.
Great website … will use this site again in the future 😉 THANK YOU !!!! Greetings
Kelly Rae,
Dropping by to add a ‘thank you’ for your beautiful art put into the world that shined light on underreported subjects especially at the time of this project. (I did a google search of my name for reasons and this thread came up, which led me to post today, years later). In re-reading my own initial comment I am taken back to this time of intense personal learning and and attempts to synthesize on matters of inequity and injustice that intersected with personal history of grief and trauma. I see my attempt for coping, grappling and acting to affect change and recall that it often felt lonely to be thinking on these issues due to how difficult it showed to be when attempting to engage various family, friends and or community members (including online forums), who seemed to me to rebuff any mention of, or worse, engage in ways that occurred to me as –and in some cases are defined as– bigoted plus uninformed of the harm caused by such bigotry and or simply disinterested in discussing. I can now recognize that channeling all of the Big Feelings including righteous rage at these experiences towards one individual or one group was a bit unfair, perhaps misguided though I also see that as a consumer of your products and participant in online forums led by artists who took part in creating #ArtistsForLove, I was within my right to provide feedback on how these attempts by myself and others were being handled. I recall you pointing out the fear, which facing the facts of injustice can elicit, and I certainly was afraid. My persistence in raising these issues in critical ways derived, too, from the belief that if more persons with platforms and audiences attuned to and spoke out about the, at that time, largely unseen/unspoken things going on around us, transformation could be enacted more quickly. Projecting all of my own interpretations of what this looks like onto you and on the #ArtistsForLove project through my rather pointed comments occurs for me now as a bit rigid, though I know there were some responses to a number of us raising these issues as they pertained to the groups we were members of that informed my point of view and tone. While I stand by the substance of my message, I wish I had been able to deliver it with more compassion and less judgement and self-righteous intensity. Not that these matters don’t merit urgency, they still do. Given it was such a big audience, it was unrealistic that you’d be meeting anyone’s expectation satisfactorily and I wonder if you weren’t overwhelmed by the demands in various directions. I hope life is affording us all to reflect and do the best we can at any given moment on these matters that persist. Thank you for the art work that I failed to acknowledge before. Take good care.
PS – I also want to add, and that may be the hardest of my truths I want to share, that the taxes you pay belong to you and you need to demand from those who govern you to treat you all better and give you your own money back. This means to give you all free healthcare and allowing you for example to give birth to babies for free and have time off as a mother and parent. You are treated all extremely badly by your political system in total. I can not understand at all how you can accept to be treated so poorly and then be pitched against each other and against non-white people in particular to distract you from the real culprits. Just an observation from across the Atlantic. And no, we are not stealing your homes. And nor did the Mexicans. Or refugees. The bankers did.
Peace!
Hello there, I am an artist from Berlin, Germany.
HOMES
There are many many homes that were lost in the world and the US these past years, due to banking crisis, foreclosures, lost jobs, wars, poverty, gentrification, alienation, illness. Not only in the world, but also in the US. Let’s be real: So many people in the US have lost a home. Not only in form of a house, but also in form of a place to belong to, to be at home.
Beyond the why.. what now? Where is your home, dear people? Those places you knew, the people, the faces, the safety of knowing this place you live in. Streets, shops, your living room, garden, terrasse. Where is it? Has it all gone into a computer?
Where are the places gone that people loved and need to feel at home? Where are the places that people need to be human? How much can be replaced by moving in lightning speed on the internet, talking in lightning speed, hurting so quickly so many.. it does not matter where you sit, which side of the fence. So many people are hurt. In your house, your home there are hurt people. You need to take care of each other, in your home – you absolutely must. And be in friendship to each other, helping, however mad things are. Do not give up on sharing and helping and protecting love and the right of everybody to be at home.
Make this world your home, and let it be everybody’s home.
With much affection to you all.
Roya from Berlin
Fantastic work and ideas, thanks for standing up and speaking out. I wish more people would do this. Hugs, Valerie
Hi Kelly,
thanks for giving me this opportunity: only love can save the world.
Warm greetings from Italy.
Paola
Thank you Kelly for starting this beautiful movement!! I so agree that it’s our responsibility to STAND with anyone being discriminated against and stand up for what is right. LOVE. PEACE. UNITY. CONNECTION.
xx
Janelle
Thank you Kelly for starting this beautiful movement!! I so agree that it’s our responsibility to STAND with anyone being discriminated against and stand up for what is right. LOVE. PEACE. UNITY. CONNECTION.
xx
Janelle
I was inspired to create a version and shared it on Instagram and Facebook. https://www.instagram.com/p/BM9V-CMDCWl/?taken-by=spiritcatart
https://www.instagram.com/spiritcatart/
Hi Kelly,
Such a lovely idea! I made a drawing and it can either be found in my Journal on my Website: http://jouleeyah.com/2016/11/18/artistsforlove/ or on Instagram: @jouleeyah
Much love from me to you,
Jouleeyah
I just wanted to share my piece here! I LOVE this movement. It is so in line with my day to day mantra of “I choose love, hope, joy, kindness.” https://thecreativedaddy.com/2016/11/18/artistsforlove-we-stand-with-you/
Forgot to ask a question Kelly Rae, Your art piece tells of all the groups you “stand with” but I am curious as to why you didn’t include, first and foremost, Americans…. And how about Christians? “All Americans” should have made the list. Americans and Christians are discriminated against and persecuted every single day.
Oh my Kelly Rae, here we go again. Isn’t this discussion creating more of a divide? What about all the artists including myself that don’t share the same beliefs? Are we kicked to the curb? Are we not to use the hashtag #artistsforlove? What if we want to create our own piece of art that doesn’t share your views? Are we considered haters because we believe differently? Are we considered the outcasts if we proudly voted for Trump? What you consider right, we may consider wrong. What we consider right, you may consider wrong. If this is about unity and love then why are you telling us what the piece of art needs to say if we use the #artistsforlove hashtag? This is a very provocative discussion. If the hashtag #artistsforlove should be used to say only YOUR chosen words, that is not love and inclusion. That is excluding an entire community of artists that don’t share your beliefs. It is implying that if we don’t believe what you believe we are not for love. Shouldn’t you have invited ALL of us to use #artistsforlove to express whatever WE feel in our hearts and not what YOU feel?
Believe it or not, Trump supporters are not evil haters. We are daughters, siblings, wives, mothers, friends, teachers, artists and much more just like you. You are no better than us and we are no better than you. That makes us equals with different beliefs. We are people that are fed up with the last administration and we are ready for change. BIG change. We got out and voted and the people have spoken. That is how our Republic works, and the results are final. In your art message you are preaching equality. That is what Trump supporters want too. We are not haters if we believe immigrants should come to our country legally. It is not that we don’t want to allow immigrants at all, it is that we expect them to go by the same rules we do. If you or I break the law we go to jail. That’s the way it works. We are expected to obey the laws of the land or go to jail if we don’t. If we go to a hospital and have a baby or get other treatment, we are expected to pay the bill. If we don’t, they have our very valuable social security number and our credit will suffer. Those that show up by breaking the law don’t have a social security number so they suffer nothing if they choose not to pay the bill. That is only one small example. I could go on and on, but I won’t. The point is that Trump supporters are ready for equality too.
We are not haters. We are good people that have different beliefs and values. Trump supporters would have to live with the results if your candidate won. Can we get on with life now and stop worrying about the election results? Myself and many of your other followers would really like to continue seeing your art and your -used to be- positive messages. Trust and believe that we don’t all share your beliefs and we are not all grieving over the election results. Trust and believe that many of us don’t want to use your words. We would like to use our own and not be excluded because our beliefs are different. The best thing that we all can do is wish President Elect Trump the very very best. You Hillary voters may end up being surprised in a good way. Give the man a chance and the benefit of the doubt. We all deserve that much and that is how we all win.
Kelly Rae,
You are such an inspiration! Thank you so much for starting an artists’ movement in which we can all express our love for ALL people and for our country.
Cheryl
We all need to keep our hearts open to the possibility of love. Love heals, provides strength , and gives us power beyond what we ever thought possible
Thank you, Kelly Rae! Here is my link: https://grace-vanakin-t5nx.squarespace.com/blog/2016/11/17/artists-for-love
Kelly, thank you so much for this! It’s wonderful. xo
So grateful for all of your contributions and art. Here is mine: https://creativesouljuice.wordpress.com/2016/11/17/artistsforlove/
I love this opportunity! Thanks!
Thank you for this, as I have made my own and is on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Much love to you, to us, to all.
Hurray thank you! I posted here for a start!
https://www.facebook.com/JennAshtonArt/
Kelly Rae: Let me be clear: to stand with Love doesn’t not mean to not stand with those who voted for someone else.
Me: Huh?
You are sending a love letter to all who aligned themselves with chauvinism, white supremacy, ableism, mysoginy, racism, rape, Islamaphobia, scapegoating of immigrants and refugees in desperate need/xenophobia and other forms of bigotry while simultaneously putting those targeted by it on the cover of a poster you can sell?
Kelly Rae: I am smarter than that, wiser than that.
Me: Please immediately inform yourself on both the perspectives of the marginalized and most vulnerable -now more urgently so as a result of all who threw their hat in with a person who has fed into, drummed up and promised the most harm to anyone not a cis-hetero white male- and on how to confront bigotry and proto-facism. (It isn’t smart or wise to do otherwise like it isn’t to “stand” with the marginalized and urgently endangered now to do otherwise)
Kelly Rae: Love wants us to dig deeper. We can hold different political beliefs, but still hold one another.
Me: Political beliefs are decidedly what this electoral cycle has NOT centered on and therefore, the differences of which are irrelevant here. As James Baldwin underscored, ANY belief rooted in the oppression and denial of fellow human beings’ rights, protections and existence is to be vigorously confronted, interrogated, resisted and uprooted; it is not mere disagreement and we had better be smarter and wiser than deluding ourselves to this end.
THIS clear unwavering action is the mandate for being able to claim we white women “stand” with the historically-oppressed and presently more intensely endangered…by everything ranging from racist registries for Muslims (May our love be to register ourselves FIRST while pushing back every other way), cruel ICE detention expansion for profit + even more mass deportations (May our love be to fund the credible groups fighting both right now + every other way possible including support for sanctuaries), conversion ‘therapy’ for gender nonconforming and LGBTQI++ (May our love be to shut this down everywhere), expansion of the militarized police forces which harm and occupy Black people and Native people the harshest and all poor people generally (May our love be to read The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander if we haven’t already, as well as the Movement 4 Black Lives platform:
https://policy.m4bl.org/
so that we white women’s can show up in solidarity, which requires meaning and substance as defined BY the oppressed, not by us, in these #BlackLivesMatter times), climate change being recklessly dismissed thereby bringing about with more acceleration the ruined water and natural resources, food scarcity, disasters, migrations, in-fighting and war, etc., ALL of which is forced upon the vulnerable first and most intensely… + endangered more now in so many more ways as a direct result of the spectacle of fear and hate of the past two years culminating with a vote FOR the real-world harm promised and which has already presented: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/11/15/update-more-400-incidents-hateful-harassment-and-intimidation-election
Kelly Rae and all artists, a decision must be made as one cannot stand both on the side of the oppressor inflicting needless human suffering AND on the side of the oppressed. We white women, in particular, must make our intentional choice crystal clear, which this project is not. Please do keep at it to get it clear and to get it right.
“Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than “politics.” They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters.” -Naomi Shulman (11/13/2016)
Thank you Kelly!! I’ve been so disappointed about what I’ve seen on face book since the election. It makes me so sad. I have to believe it will all be ok if we just give it a little time. Life is full of challenges and this past election was a huge one. Yes artist make life beautiful so we should all do what we do best!! Make art!!
Susan E.
Kelly Rae… You are a gift to the soul of the world, not just the souls of the world, but, the soul that we all divinely share that makes all of us brothers and sisters. As a Muslim, I know the faith I have keeps this possible for me because the world is to be seen as all one family, but, for many, art makes the connection that faith cannot and this is a miracle. Thank-you, again, for understanding how we are not indeed separated by the events of the world, but, that we are becoming even more unified and love-filled. http://suchawondrousplacethisfaerytalespace.blogspot.com/2016/11/artistsforlove.html
Thanks so much, Kelly Rae Roberts!
From Italy
https://twitter.com/verityumap/status/798993465665142784
I have created a post and a poster for download. Now, more than ever, the creatives and Rebels of Love must stand and let our hearts break open in connection with one another. Here is the link to my post and the downloadable art. http://paulissakippisms.com/wp/?p=2066
You touch my heart!
Thank you, Kelly, for starting #Artistsforlove. we need to stand together. Artists are especially good at conveying this message.
such a wonderful idea….done!
Beautiful website!
Dear Kelly Rea,
what an amazing idea & movement! When I read about it yesterday on instagram, I felt the strong calling to join & be a part of it. And as I already worked in my artjournal, I created a poster out of the page. So I’m one of the #artistsforlove too: Here’s my blog (mainly in German) & downloadable poster: http://stefaniemarquetant.com/artists-for-love
Let’s share the LOVE!
If when you say we can have different political beliefs and stand together, I have to assume you support Trump or are a republican. Otherwise, I dont see why there would be a need to make this statement. With that being said, you cannot support a man who speaks hate and division and simultaneously stand with marginalized groups. This just isnt possible. I have to question whether this is your way to ease your guilty conscience after voting for Trump and seeing how it has caused an uprising of hate crimes and harrasment among oppressed groups.
No Laurie… You couldn’t be more wrong. Kelly Rae does not support Trump. I responded to the e mail she sent out shortly after the election where she says she is “grieving”. She wouldn’t be “grieving” if her candidate won. However, I am a Trump supporter and so are MANY of Kelly Rae’s followers. I know many of them personally and believe me, we have all discussed this. Kelly Rae doesn’t have a guilty conscience because she voted for YOUR candidate. I can also assure you that those of us that voted for Trump do NOT have a guilty conscience either. We are totally thrilled and all the Trump supporters that I know are more than happy to be loud and clear about the fact that we proudly voted for Trump.
Or Lisa this is how you ease your guilt for pushing your opinions on others as if they are not entitled to disagree with you. You aren’t the judge of everyone else that did not vote for your candidate. Period. It IS possible for All people to stand together and work together regardless of our differences. Art is a freedom of expression of that. Your comments and accusations directed at someone attempting to conquer the divide is really just as hateful.
This an important and valiant effort to unite rather than divide. Thank you!
THANK YOU! Every positive step, every act of kindness, every courageous action, and every time we are not silent bystanders MATTERS.
Wonderful to hear and start the healing process. Love conquers all.
WOW! You have said what is true and what I’ve been wanting to hear and say. Thank you and blessings to us all.
Orly Avineri alerted us via FB. Thanks for this, Kelly.
Hi Kelly Rae
What a beautiful sentiment and intention, to spread love and support in these challenging times. I agree with you, those of us who are able have a responsibility to support those less fortunate and less able.
God bless you. I wish you well. Go #artistsforlove!
Sarah
xxo
You don’t have to publish this comment if you don’t want.
For some of us out here who don’t feel exactly as you are expressing, grieving feels like the wrong expression. Obviously at least 50% of the people who voted are not “grieving.” But even saying that, some of us are unsure where we are headed. This feels like you are one or the other and it feels like more of a divide. If we are split in half, how do we ever find common ground. Is it okay to assume that a person is all one way or all the other?
I am sure that social media has pushed my anxiety as individuals express hateful and unjust feelings. I want our country to thrive and I think we have to move away from the divide. In the last 8 years or so, people have been voting for “hope and change” and “making America great again” and it is a sign of deep angst that is being felt from all sides. I think you have the right idea, but it isn’t completely inclusive.
I agree with Karen. Not all artists are grieving the election of Donald Trump. It doesn’t mean those artists lack compassion for people who are hurting. In fact, there are many people that aren’t included in the fliers here – people who have felt just as marginalized and unheard during the past 4-8 years. Where were the artists voices speaking then and for them? Christians scared for their fellow Christians who are being persecuted/murdered in the Middle East, coal miners who have lost their jobs, Jewish students on campus persecuted for their love of Israel, rust belt workers displaced by globalization, families losing their ability to pay for health insurance due to the ACA’s high deductibles and people of good will who voted for Donald Trump due to politically different views who have been labeled as deplorables, racists, etc.
I agree!!!
Amen to that sisters.
Thank you for sharing. So far you are only one no afraid of saying so. I personally have been crushed and disillusioned myself by soooo many artists I have loved, respected & admired. Some of their comments to others in posts not aligned with their beliefs have been sooo horribly vile & ugly and made attempts to belittle and demean people not voting for Hilary. I am sickened that We are told we can all agree to disagree and love will prevail. That we can hold different political views and still share compassion.
I am seeing soooo many artists (that I thought were loving and compassionate) in a totally different light.
I love this idea. And I’m totally going to make a painting of my own. Thank you for sharing this and for sharing a message of love.
Thank you!!!
Thank You <3