World On Fire: Why We Make Art

When the world feels like it’s on fire — politically, socially, spiritually — what keeps us creating?

In this powerful solo episode of Lattes & Art, host James William Moore explores how art has always risen from the ashes of turmoil. From Goya’s haunting Disasters of War and Picasso’s Guernica to the bold voices of Aaron Douglas, Augusta Savage, and David Wojnarowicz, this episode traces the enduring thread of art as activism and creation as survival.

James reflects on why artists pick up their tools when silence might seem easier, how censorship reveals fear more than morality, and how art transforms pain into light. He also shares the story behind his own work, Projected Words — a searing response to the homophobia born from ignorance, religion, and power — turning hate-filled language into luminous reclamation.

Why We Make Art When the World Is Burning is a call to witness, to feel, and to create. Because when the world burns, art becomes both the record of our pain and the proof of our persistence.

Call to Action:

If this episode inspires you to create — any art, in any form — share it with us.

Tag @LattesAndArtPodcast and @JSquaredAtelier on social media and let’s keep the creative fire burning together.

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J-Squared Aterlier (J2Atelier)
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James William Moore
🌐 Website: James William Moore
📸 Instagram: @the_jwmartist

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Transcript

00;00;03;02 - 00;00;35;21
James
Some mornings it feels like the world is on fire. And not just metaphorically. The headlines burn, the planet burns, and sometimes people burn out. But in the middle of all of this chaos, somehow, impossibly, we keep making art. Why? I pick up a brush or a camera or a pen or mold some clay. When everything feels like it's unraveling.

00;00;35;23 - 00;01;08;12
James
Why create when destruction seems to have the louder voice? Welcome to latest art presented by J-Squared Atelier. I'm your host, James William Moore and today we're sitting with a question. I can't stop thinking about when the world is burning politically, socially, spiritually. Why do we still reach for art? Not to find the perfect answer, but to remember that creativity doesn't stop when things get hard.

00;01;08;14 - 00;01;41;21
James
If anything, it becomes more necessary when the world feels unstable. Art becomes survival. It's how we process the unprocessed rubble. At least it is for me. It's how we say I'm still here. Even when everything else feels uncertain. I've seen in my own work, in the classroom, in the studio. And in those quiet moments when the only thing that made sense was to make something.

00;01;41;23 - 00;02;22;12
James
Art in those moments isn't decoration. It's therapy. It's resistance. It's breath. Toni Morrison said this is precisely the time when artists go to work. And Picasso reminded us painting is not made to decorate apartments. It's an instrument of war, not war in the violent sense. But the war for meaning, for truth, for humanity. Because every time history heats up, artists don't retreat.

00;02;22;14 - 00;02;28;00
James
They get to work.

00;02;28;02 - 00;02;38;14
James
Art is activism isn't new. It's older than any institution, older than any rulebook about what art should be.

00;02;38;16 - 00;03;17;04
James
Are you familiar with Francisco Goya? His haunting series, The Disasters of War. Show what governments tried to hide. The cruelty, the blood, the human cost. Or Picasso's Guernica, painted in 1937. A scream on canvas after the bombing of civilians. It became a global cry against fascism. A painting that refused silence. During the Harlem Renaissance. Artists like Aaron Douglas and Augustus Savage reclaimed their image.

00;03;17;06 - 00;03;57;26
James
Art is empowerment. Art is identity. Across Mexico, the muralists Rivera, Orozco and Sequoias took art out of the gallery and onto the street. They made walls speak for people. Fast forward to the 1980s and 90s. The Aids crisis artists like Keith Haring, David Voinovich, and collectives like Act Up and Grand Fury turned grief into protest. Their message was bold, unflinching.

00;03;57;28 - 00;04;16;11
James
Silence equals death. And today, it continues. And Black Lives Matter murals and digital performance and protest photography that documents both rage and resilience.

00;04;16;13 - 00;04;58;03
James
Wherever the world teeters, artists step forward. Because art doesn't just decorate reality. It documents it. It disrupts it. It dares to reimagine it. And that's why when power feels threatened, the first thing it tries to do is silence the artist. In 1937, Nazi Germany staged the degenerate Art exhibition. They mocked Modern Artist as corrupt because those paintings challenged their perfect vision of order.

00;04;58;05 - 00;05;27;13
James
In 1989, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's The Perfect Moment exhibition ignited a political storm. It asked uncomfortable questions about beauty, identity and desire. And politicians tried to shut it down. Let's look at AI Weiwei. Imprisoned. Surveilled, his art destroyed for daring to speak truth to power.

00;05;27;15 - 00;06;06;24
James
Censorship always reveals fear, not fear of the image itself, but fear of the conversation. It starts. And we're seeing that fear again in banned books and attacks on the LGBTQ plus and Bipoc artists in the attempts to erase uncomfortable truths from classrooms and museums. Whenever truth gets too close to power, art becomes dangerous. And that is exactly why we need it.

00;06;06;27 - 00;06;41;01
James
Making art in dark times isn't only about activism, it's also about survival of the spirit. Art transforms pain into connection. It gives shape to what can't be said out loud. When I created man and Beast Terror, I wasn't just playing with camp and kitsch. Mind you, though, there was plenty of both. It became a mirror, a way to tell truth sideways through humor, exaggeration, and symbolism.

00;06;41;03 - 00;06;57;25
James
And before that, when I built my Get a Clue series, it followed that same impulse to take the absurdity of our social and political world and twist it until the truth revealed itself in satire.

00;06;57;28 - 00;07;20;00
James
But one of my most personal works, Projected Words, came from a different place. That one was born out of anger. Out of the exhaustion that comes from hearing the same messages of hate disguised as morality. From pulpits, from podiums, from politicians.

00;07;20;02 - 00;07;53;07
James
Projected words was my response to homophobia that hides behind ignorance, religion and authority. I took the very language that had been weaponized against queer people the slurs, the scripture, the legislation and projected those words back onto walls, onto myself, onto the world that created them. The same words that once condemned us became light. And in that act I reclaimed them.

00;07;53;10 - 00;08;15;29
James
That's what art can do. It can take the language of oppression and turn it into illumination. It can make pain visible and therefore impossible to ignore. Art lets us hold contradictions, the absurd and the sincere, the laughter and the ache.

00;08;16;01 - 00;08;30;01
James
Because art doesn't stop the fire, but it helps us understand how it started and maybe how to keep a little light alive inside it.

00;08;30;04 - 00;09;09;26
James
You don't have to be a professional artist to create creativity as a human right. In fact, we are born with creativity, right? Paint. Sing. Stitch. Photograph. Dance. Make something that says I'm still here. Because every small act of creation is resistance against despair. Every creative gesture says we matter. We're awake. And we're not done yet.

00;09;09;28 - 00;09;25;09
James
So when the world feels like it's burning. Make art not to put out the fire. But to remind us why the flame of humanity matters.

00;09;25;11 - 00;09;55;17
James
This has been launched as an art presented by J-Squared Atelier. I'm James William Moore, and I want to thank you for joining me in this space for thinking, feeling and creating alongside me. And if this episode sparked something in you, if you felt inspired to create in any form, we'd love to see it. Share your art with us on social media and tag hashtag Latinas in Art and at J2 Italia on Instagram.

00;09;55;19 - 00;10;24;21
James
Let's keep this creative fire burning together. Check the Shownotes for links to the artist and works I mentioned today, and if this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who might need a reminder that their voice, their art still matters. Until next time, keep your coffee strong, your heart open, and your creative fire burning.