Protest Collages from Tesla Takedown, April 19

 I came prepared for the day before Easter Sunday to be scantly attended. I chose the Berkeley Tesla protest because it has potential for the most direct effect. I'm not sure how well attended the more general Hands Off protest, at North Berkeley BART, was this time compared to last time, but nation-wide more people attended more protests than at the beginning of April. 

My collaging has become more streamlined. First I do a quick trim of all of the signs and mark them as "favorites" if they have been trimmed. Then I open up Procreate and generally upload 6 signs per square image. This time I went through all of these collections and finished the trimming so, in most cases, only the sign and the hands holding the sign show. On the next pass I start to arrange the signs to fit into the squares. I might make them larger or smaller, stretch them out in various ways or correct into a more squared off shape if they were at a strong angle to my camera. I often lighten the signs made on brown cardboard. I decide which signs overlap others. When I am happy with the arrangement I choose a background color to tie it all together. I select all signs at once and shrink them a bit, to make a wider border all around. I often add faint brush patterns to the background. Last I give the whole image a slightly darker frame, kind of a vignette effect, also helping to tie the random signs together visually. Rinse and repeat. Unavoidable gaps are filled in with my crow stamps.

I was surprised that there were many new signs at the Tesla protest. People really do create new ones most weeks. Our government moves in such a fast and wonderful manner that I found that my "Keep your hands off Heard Island" penguin sign, created two weeks before, was already rather dated. We have so many new dire and bizarre things to joke about. I have my sign prepared for this weekend; I'm guessing it will still be valid, unfortunately.

Here are the signs:

I had to do a bit of research to understand the Path of Exile sign.

I love it when you talk chemistry....

Other times I have been here the show room has been closed. This time the door was open, but the building was empty at the time I looked inside. Except for a few staff. One was watching the protest and looking like she was enjoying herself. Another was either a manager/owner or hired security. She was busy taking photos of the protesters and sending them off to someone.  I quietly took a couple of photos of her as well, but I would not "out" her any more than I would out the protesters. The sort of eyeball below is really the headlight of the car that the protester was standing next to. Suitably weird.....

Another view of the showroom with protesters reflected in the glass.

This sign was great. Looking like the signs at a street corner, they swivel constantly to give you 4 combinations of people who should be prosecuted or impeached. Take your pick.

I'm developing curse word covering skills....

Also too-many-body-parts-you-can't-unsee covering skills.

Again, many of the signs are funny or rude, but we are protesting the bad/illegal things that have happened already and reminding people of more that are likely to come.