Scrapbook Art - Taking Scrapbooking into the Realm of Social and Political Expression

Scrapbook art is not entirely unlike other forms of expression in the art world. Did you know that artists like Shultz and others used their abilities to speak out and up about things going on in society? Opinions abound everywhere, but who thinks for a moment that you might find a profound statement in a “political cartoon?” We have seen them in our favorite papers as well as online these days. Expression is an important human activity and you can do that as well with your scrapbook art.

Long before the current issues of the Internet and the issues of who should use it and how it should be used came along, the thought of how to use scrapbooking in this way had occurred to me awhile back.

Following is my own scrapbook art page that is an expression of how I and many others feel that our basic freedoms in the regard of the Internet are being threatened. The following scrapbook page is a statement against SOPA and PIPA, and in my own way, a statement against those fighting against the practice of faith in God as well.

What I feel is important here and key to all these liberties we have is “free speech.” You can also tack on others such as “free enterprise.” Without these things, what you have is censorship. Who has the right to censor someone else?

The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Similar to it is Amendment 10 which states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Thomas Jefferson, on his first inaugural address, Wednesday, March 1, 1801, stated, “…what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people?...a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”Does the idea of being able to express yourself through your scrapbook art appeal to you? Consider how you would like to change the world with scrapbooking.

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