Haikus for an Autocrat (en route to Florida)
In the very last hour of his foul presidency, a last thought for DJT…
I staggered to the end of 2020, like so many of us. I have little to say about that, other than to confess that although earnest efforts, my university teaching (three classes, delivered respectively to first year students, seniors in illustration, and a graduate lecture course—the Illustrated Periodical, a grounding for entering students in the Illustration and Visual Culture (MFA-IVC) program—was undistinguished. Yes, the pandemic conditions and the load were less than conducive for excellence. We do our best. So it goes.
During the summer of 2020, I knew what the fall would look and feel like. So I doubled down on the break to produce something of contemporary value—which turned out to be a Trumpian Alphabet. A is for Autocrat got a lot of investment during the eight weeks of frenzied making between late May and mid-July, through the promotion phase running almost to the election.
It pains me to admit it, but Donald J. Trump took a significant toll on my focus and productivity in the last five years, but especially in the last two. When I finally turned my editorial and creative energies to confronting that, and him, it came as a relief. A salvo, an indictment. Autocrat is richly visual, and I am proud of the illustration and design, another collaboration with Scott Gericke. In coming weeks I hope to do a quick tour through the vintage alphabet books I consulted to inform the project.
Despite high design values, the text of the project really drove it; I truly did want to build a moral indictment against Trump. In the very last hour of his foul presidency, I’m grabbing details from the book to highlight the case we made against him in mid-2020, or several hundred thousand Covid-19 deaths and one Capitol attack ago.
Thanks to my collaborators: Scott; Emily Bielski, who built the social media campaign elements; old and wise friend Jonathan Tazewell, who served as an editorial adivser; my son Daniel, the project researcher; my son Andrew, who conceived of the social media campaign and advised us on it; and my partner Lori Dowd, who the work at StoryTrack promoting the enterprise for Spartan Holiday Books.
A is for Autocrat can be purchased here.