001 - creating a ringmaster
i had zero intention of starting this blog with a post related to politics but here i am.
"the ringmaster of the great american circus" 16x20 inch digital artwork
the goal i set at the beginning of the month was to launch my online print shop in tandem with the summer solstice on june 20th and create a couple illustrations related to the solstice alongside my pleinairpril collection. i still plan to soft launch the shop later thus week, i'll make a post about that too! however, the vibes here in the united states are, off. to say the least. immigration agents are kidnapping people across the country, we're getting dragged into another war and about 100 other reason to dislike this administration in the white house have people upset. very upset.
i also feel this administration has been terrible. i've never been a trump guy and these last few weeks have been a living nightmare, both in my own personal world and the outside world. so i felt compelled to get that energy out of me and create this political cartoon to go alongside the no kings protest on saturday, june 14th. it felt quite nice to get this outta my system so i can move onto the next thing.
@michael_fran.art timelapse of me creating the ringmaster caricature of donald trump 🤡🤡🤡 for no kings day, june 14th 2025 #nokings #nokingsamerica #president #america #caricature #clown #jester #ringleader ♬ Tear The Facists Down - Woody Guthrie
i think the piece speaks for itself. on my social media posts about it, i had a couple paragraphs about trump being a puppet, this being an up-vs-down issues as opposed to a left-vs-right and how immigrants built this country and nobody is illegal on stolen land. one thing i didn't include was a call to action because i wasn't sure what i wanted that too be. i know not everyone can go protest and i know money is tight for a lot of people, myself included. i also don’t expect people to all of a sudden become a leftist like me and flip their political views over night. it doesn’t work like that and i don’t expect that. what i find frustrating is their loyalty to the individual who has a limited scope of opinions. loyalty to someone who doesn’t like anyone who disagrees with them. that’s the beauty of democracy right? that everyone’s voices are heard? that we will disagree and that the truth is whats most important?
it also has been quite reassuring seeing how many people disliked this man as much as i do. for some reason, i was a bit worried this wouldn't land well but it has become one of my best performing pieces so far. suprisingly, i haven't received a bit of hate either, which i expected some pushback but im happy to report my comments and dm's are clean of maga hate, for now.
thumbnails and ideas i had for this illustration
originally i was going to do trump as a puppet and i wanted him to be ominously dangling above a generic white house with fire or some kind of chaos behind them all. i still think that was a cool idea but when i tried to execute it came off as more aggressive than i was intending. i think the idea of portraying trump as a 'force to be reckoned with' or as a villain isn't as solid of a message as liberals think it is. the real villains are behind the scenes, the billionaires and tech companies. not this clown. i didn't want to prop him up so instead i made him seem like the fool he is. maga likes seeing him as this powerful figure, many believe him to be just that. he's not. he's is the president of the united states and he works for the people. he should remember that.
so if i were to attach a call to action here, it would be for my fellow artists out there. if you also feel compelled to speak on anyone you believe in, speak up! create a piece that you're proud of and that represents who you are as a human being. i got a handful of comments that were wanting more political cartoons from more types of artists. i think the political cartoon genre has gotten stale and it's been really fun to dive into this subject.
the landscape in entertainment (film, animation and video games) is changing and has been for years. indie studios are growing more and more and our ties to old money are breaking. we can speak directly to our audiences in ways that traditional media wouldn't allow. i think we have an opportunity to not let anyone control the narrative but us.
sketches of donald trump as a clown puppet from my sketchbook
going forward, i plan to keep my politics to a few select pieces every now and again. i've always wanted my pages to be light-hearted and inspire hope. i feel this is one of those few cases where i wanted to say something and it is what it is. while i will try and stay positive and light-hearted, i will speak my mind as i feel necessary. i have one more 'political' piece planned for the fourth of july but my focus going forward will be around indigenous issues and environmental issues, like the fact that were about to put up a majority of public lands up for sale to pay for the tax cuts for the wealthy...
i also have some not-political stuff ive been working on. my next blog post will go over what the actual plan is going forward. i'm still evolving the vision for how this blog, my social media pages and my artworks all tie together to tell my story. more to come!
remember, slow down to speed up.
made w intention by human hands, michael :)