Dear Reader,

You may have noticed there was no May/June print edition of Artillery. Due to COVID-19, funds were low and galleries were shuttered, so we did an online-only issue. But we are back now with a Summer print edition, and we owe it all to a GoFundMe campaign and our current advertisers. Everyone showed their support and we can’t thank you enough.

You may have also noticed that a lot has changed in the world over these last few months. As with most publications, assignments are made well in advance. Presciently, our theme was Our Changing (Art) World—understatement of the year! A lot of the stories were surprisingly germane, so we kept them. Even our intrepid writer-at-large Sarah Sargent visited the National
Memorial for Peace and Justice before the pandemic and turned in her copy well before the George Floyd protests; I didn’t change a word. And Kate Caruso interviewed our cover artist, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, from Ghana, whose gorgeous painting graces our cover.

Artillery has always reflected upon the current status of the world, and our present upheaval is no exception. With the Black Lives Matter protests, our contributors rose quickly to the occasion with relevant topics. Alexia Lewis has a conversation with art colleague Kesha Bruce about rage and healing and the changes that have to be made—and the pressures of being a Black artist. Luca Celada brought to our attention a little gem of an art community center tucked away in South Los Angeles.

At first when all of this was happening—the pandemic, then the video of the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of a corrupt police department—I really thought to myself: Who the fuck cares about art now? Isn’t it frivolous and indulgent to be thinking about art at a time like this? I even had thoughts of giving up the magazine entirely. Upon consideration, I remembered that Artillery is a platform for addressing such issues and building a dialogue on them. My contributors chimed in with their outrage, their passion and their eagerness to have their voice heard.

As I reread our stories in this issue, I kept stumbling across the same words in different articles. Words like: isolation, rage, healing, frustration, injustice and peace. These words express how we feel about what’s going on in our country. Art can have an enormous effect: I really believe that.

That’s what this issue ended up being—a cry out to anyone that will listen during these seemingly hopeless times. The art world isn’t going anywhere anytime soon; in fact the art world is responding. I wrote several editorials during these past months, and I don’t feel like repeating myself. Just know that Artillery is living up to its name, and we are keeping up the good fight. The fight for a better world where Black Lives Matter, Black artists matter, People of Color matter.

Justice and peace are in the lineup for future assignments in our magazine—and our lives. We stand in solidarity and always will.