An Art Project by Suzanne Broughel

This is a project I began during the summer of 2008, while a participant at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.  In the weeks leading up to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions which nominated Barack Obama and John McCain as presidential candidates, I was thinking about hope vs. cynicism, inclusion vs. erasure.  I found images on Ebay of vintage buttons from the Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton presidential campaigns.  I altered these images - removing the candidates' identities - to create new campaign buttons, which I am distributing to the public free of charge.  Upon choosing a button, the recipient is given a certificate informing them of the candidate's missing identity, along with this blog link.

Below are images of the ten button designs, along with the certificate text for each button.

CATALYST FOR CHANGE

This is an altered graphic from a vintage Shirley Chisholm political button. Chisholm made a bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1972.  The center of the original button reads "Shirley Chisholm for President" in large blue letters.

RUN, RUN!

 

This is an altered graphic from a vintage Jesse Jackson political button.  Jackson made bids for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.  The orignial button reads "Run Jesse Run!".

FOLLOW THE RAINBOW

This is an altered graphic from a vintage Jesse Jackson political button.  Jackson made bids for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.  Overlaying the rainbow image on the original button are the words "Jackson for President in 1984".

TO REPRESENT ALL AMERICANS

This is an altered graphic from a vintage Shirley Chisholm political button.  Chisholm made a bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in1972.  The original button features a photo of Chisholm in the center, above which are the words "Shirley Chisholm for President".

MAKING MIRACLES

This is an altered graphic from a vintage Jesse Jackson political button.  Jackson made bids for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.  The original button features the words "Jesse Jackson '88" in the center of the map of Texas.

A PRESIDENT FOR ALL AMERICA

This is an altered graphic from a vintage Al Sharpton political button.  Sharpton made a bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2004.  The original button features a photo of Sharpton, along with the words "REV AL SHARPTON".