I believe that each of us is given one sentence at birth, and we spend the rest of our life trying to read that sentence and make sense of it.
Li Young Lee
BLM Protestor Shouts at Cops and Back the Blue Demonstrators, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, NY, Jul. 12, 2020, 2020, pencil on paper, 11 × 15.5 inches.
Hospital Ship Comfort at 50th Street, New York City, Apr. 3, 2020, 2020, ink and watercolor on paper, 11 × 15.5 inches. Images courtesy of the artist and Postmasters Gallery, New York.
EJ Electric Workers, New York City, Apr. 3, 2020, 2020, ink and watercolor on paper, 11 × 15.5 inches.
Photojournalists Outside Wyckoff Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, Apr. 7, 2020, 2020, ink and watercolor on paper, 11 × 15.5 inches.
Girls Speaking Outside Federal Courthouse, Portland, OR, Aug. 1, 2020, 2020, pencil on paper, 11 × 15.5 inches.
Detail of Officers Wong, Castillo & Chen at Occupy City Hall, New York City, Jul. 15, 2020, 2020, pencil on paper, 11 × 15.5 inches.
Cops and Federal Police Pushing Protesters Down the Street, Portland, OR, Jul. 26, 2020, 2020, pencil, ink, and watercolor on paper, 11 × 15.5 inches.
Detail of Speaker at the Justice Center, Portland, OR, Jul. 28, 2020, 2020, pencil on paper, 11 × 15.5 inches.
Speakers Outside Justice Center II, Portland, OR, Jul. 31, 2020, 2020, pencil and ink on paper, 11 × 15.5 inches.
NYPD Breaks Up Orthodox Jewish Tailgate Party, Grand Street, New York City, Apr. 20, 2020, 2020, ink and watercolor on paper, 11 × 31 inches.
End of the Evening, Lownsdale Square, Portland, OR, Aug. 3, 2020, 2020, pencil, ink, and watercolor on paper, 12.5 × 24.5 inches.
Burning Flags Outside the Federal Courthouse, Portland, OR, Aug. 1, 2020, 2020, pencil, ink, and watercolor on paper, 11 × 15.5 inches.
Wall of Moms at Fence in Front of Federal Courthouse II, Portland, OR, Jul. 28, 2020, 2020, pencil, ink, and watercolor on paper, 11 × 15.5 inches.
Steve Mumford is an artist who lives and works in New York and Maine. Mumford has been drawing current events on the ground for many years, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the BP oil spill in Louisiana, and more. His most recent solo show was Drawings from America’s Front Lines (2020) at Postmasters Gallery, New York.
Originally published in
Our winter issue includes interviews with Tashi Dorji, Danielle Evans, Walton Ford, Guadalupe Maravilla, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, the Ross Brothers, and Aaron Turner; DIY cookbooklets from Dindga McCannon; poetry by Rae Armantrout, Imani Elizabeth Jackson, and Allison Parrish; prose by Langston Cotman, GennaRose Nethercott, and Brontez Purnell; a comic by Michael DeForge; protest drawings by Steve Mumford; and more.
I believe that each of us is given one sentence at birth, and we spend the rest of our life trying to read that sentence and make sense of it.
Li Young Lee