Web designer Andres Zapata was cleaning out his home office late one January night when inspiration struck.
Zapata came across a zip-lock bag filled with pieces of credit cards he'd chopped up after consolidating his debt last year. Instead of throwing out the clippings, Zapata arranged them in the shape of a spindly hand grasping a credit card and snapped a photo of it. Called Plastic, the villainous-looking piece will be published in a book of recession-themed art later this year.
Plastic "reflects the fake power I was given to purchase things I didn't need and couldn't afford," Zapata said. "It's like facing my own demons."
With Plastic, Zapata joined a growing number of artists and musicians here and abroad who are using the economic meltdown as inspiration. They're creating songs, paintings and photos based on the downturn, and documenting the recession's effect on society.
Nashville-based country music singer John Rich rails against "big shots whining on my evening news" in his heart-wrenching song "Shuttin' Detroit Down." And photos of scathing street art based on bank bailouts and corrupt financier Bernie Madoff appear on the London-based blog Vandalog.
"Sometimes, we're at our best when circumstances are at their worst," said Tom Beck, chief curator at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. "I would say that's true for art as well as every other realm. It seems like when we're most challenged, we rise to that challenge."
Throughout history, artists have used economic and social upheaval as a muse. Like the photos from the government-sponsored Farm Security Administration and Archibald J. Motley Jr.'s Depression-era paintings, some of the most striking art, music and photography came from turbulent times, Beck said.
In January, Zapata began Recession Nation - a book of art and poetry inspired by the crisis. He has since received 30 submissions from artists in Baltimore, New York, Chicago and even Savannah, Ga. He hopes the book will eventually include more than 100 pieces. Proceeds from Recession Nation will be donated to charity, Zapata said, so he can help people affected by the slump.
"In a nutshell, I got tried of hearing people complain about it and not do anything about it," said Zapata, 33, who lives in Charles Village. "I decided to do something about it."
It's important that artists and musicians catalog the fallout in the moment, Zapata said.
