Every warrior has a weapon and mine is my art. In my work I try to visually examine the versions of “American” history that have been overlooked and whitewashed. Aware that history is used as a strategy of domination, I attempt to subvert through my art the various dominant histories of the United States. History, culture, and politics are three key issues of my work. I politically charge allegories of my cultural history in hopes that the viewer will learn and also react. I want to create dialogue about the issues that shape our histories, and in turn shape our identities, and our futures.

My range of medium includes oil paintings to lithograph posters to ink cartoons, but they all have a common goal of educating and challenging. I call my painting style “comic baroque.” It is shaped both by the early childhood influences of comic books and later by Colonial Baroque paintings. I fuse these two different (but connected) styles by drawing out my figures as cartoonish caricatures, then placing them in dramatic settings accompanied by satirical script. Like a comic book cover, I try to tell a story with just one crucial scene.

In the long tradition of political activism in the fine art of printing, I have found one of the perfect vehicles for my art. With the printing medium, I can create multiple posters of the same image that can be widely distributed. My greatest medium for maximum influence to the public is the political cartoon in newspapers. This vehicle allows my critical commentary to be mass-produced and freely distributed. Though I use this medium as a weapon to strike at injustice it is also a learning tool that educates on issues often overlooked in mainstream media. My paintings may teach those few who go to see them in some gallery, but these political cartoons are put out in the public to inform a broader audience what is going on. These political cartoons range from global to local issues, environmental to political.

The power of the imagery is a tremendous vehicle for telling stories. Through my art I try to make imagery that not only reflects on the past but also poses challenges to the present. I consider my art a historically based, politically charged criticism, with the goal of creating dialogue about the issues that affect history and identity.

—Eric J. Garcia