Long before the alphabet, humans were recording stories with art. The cave men painted pictures onto rock to tell stories that archaeologist now study. Despite humanity’s fairly recent obsession for the need of words to explain things, drawing pictures are still a powerful way to tell a story. Milt Priggee, an editorial cartoonist, who worked for The Spokesman Review in the late 80s, returned to Spokane last weekend to give a very informational presentation on his work. The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, a museum very dedicated to the history and growth of Spokane, provided the space for Priggee as a part of the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau program. Humanities Washington is a non-profit program dedicated to discussing the issues of humanity.
Milt Priggee grew up in Chicago. He has provided his art for several local newspaper and is currently living in Oak Harbor, Washington. Priggee has a wonderful sense of humor but I guess that's necessary with a career like his.
So what is an editorial cartoonist? As an editorial cartoonist, Priggee’s job is to share his opinion on current issues through art, and therefore his work can be very controversial. Sometimes the editorial cartoonist is the person that comes out and says what everyone else was too scared to say in fear of offending someone. Other times, editorial cartoonists offer a totally different perspective on what is going on in the world. If you're an editorial cartoonist and you’re doing your job right, there are going to be more than a few hate letters and law suits.
You might recognize this editorial cartoon titled Join, or Die created by Benjamin Franklin. Just like Benjamin Franklin, Priggee and other editorial cartoonist create very powerful images by taking current issues into their art. In fact, Priggee took Franklin's cartoon and created a cartoon that applied to the residents of Washington.
The art of editorial cartooning will never die. It’s an art that has been around forever and isn’t going anywhere. Here’s the catch: Nowadays, the newspapers don’t want to offend anyone. They don’t want to pick a side. One week you’ll see a very liberal cartoon in the paper and the next week you’ll see a totally conservative cartoon in the same newspaper company. Editorial cartoonist create and then hope that their work gets chosen.
As a tree hugger, as everyone should be, this cartoon of Priggee's was one of my favorites. It’s simple and yet says so much. It doesn’t need any labels or explanation. Not only does it relate to those in the Pacific Northwest but this piece is applicable all over the world.
Priggee created the cartoon below in 1994 yet is even more relevant today. Again, this is a cartoon that many people can understand. It's simple and very powerful.
Some of Priggee’s work is more directly influence by his location. For those in living Washington, these photos have more meaning because of their relevance to the community.
To check out more of Priggee’s work, head to his website by clicking any of the photos!
Personally, I wish I had grown up more familiar with art work like Priggee’s. I found Priggee’s work to be very powerful because of his ability to make you think about what's happening in the world. Many of us are not as informed as we should be about politics. Politics have always been a little interesting to me but looking at editorial cartoons makes the political issues more real and applicable for me. Maybe if editorial cartoons were more prevalent in are world we would find that people had a larger desire to become more informed about what is going on in the world. Going to this lecture, I realized that the only way I get news nowadays is not through the news but through late night comedic shows, like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and The Daily Show. What does that say about our culture? Should we be getting our information from a less satirical source? What should change about our news stations so that people are more willing to listen? The news stations have one job, to inform the people, yet comedic shows are doing a better job so that's where most informed people get their information. Should this change? Perhaps humor makes it easier to listen to and see the idiotic and horrible things that go on in this crazy world.
