The Artivist

A roadmap for the younger generation on making the world a better place

Do you ever worry about what today’s youth will ask us when they are old enough to realise what kind of world we’ve left them to live in? As a parent of a three-year-old, it’s a constant thought that circles in my mind. It’s a big reason why I wrote and illustrated The Artivist.

This book is the story of my very own Artivist journey. The main character follows a very similar path to my actual career as an Artivist, which has spanned more than ten years so far. After one of my Sunday Sketches went viral, I realised just how much power there is in a single art piece to spark conversations centered around social justice. Sunday after Sunday, I began creating one art piece that reflected what was happening in the world. I often begin from a personal place, where I highlight a specific person or group of people who have been adversely affected by one of the many ‘broken bones’ in our society, whether that is racism, income inequality, global pollution, wars, gun violence or any other harmful issue that needs to be fixed. Once I have chosen that personal story, I will research the broken bone and the affected individual(s) and often paint a portrait or scene that speaks to their humanity and their situation. The final step is sharing it with the world, so that as many people as possible can learn about the issue and be inspired to play their part in making a positive change. In 2020, Michelle Obama shared my portraits of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, and once again I saw my activist art all over the world by way of social media.

I closely mirrored my Sunday Sketch journey in The Artivist. You see the boy creating a mural that goes viral - as one of my first Artivism pieces did - and it opens his eyes to the power that activist art has to inspire the entire world with just one image. He goes on to paint murals all over the country that call out the broken bones of the world and inspire the Artivist in all of us to use our creativity to protest injustice, protect the planet and stand up against inequality. It is a call to the Artivist in each and every one of us, no matter what age, to use our creativity to inspire others to make a positive change in the world. I see this book as a roadmap for the next generations of fearless creatives, to envision an inclusive and equitable future.

Artivism is truly a tool for all creatives, but especially all the young creatives out there who, like the Artivist in the book, are starting to see all of the broken bones in our society and ask how things got to be this way, from global warming, to housing inequality, to racial/social injustices and more.

There is a biodiversity crisis. There is a humanitarian crisis. There is a global warfare crisis. There is an economic crisis. There is a housing crisis.

We cannot pretend as though our young ones do not notice all of this and are not affected by it. They do notice. They are affected. They need not only hope, but creative tools to fight back.

I created The Artivist for young people filled with all those tough questions and to remind them that they have infinite creative solutions that can point us in the direction of a brighter world.

I want this book to be a reminder that creative protest is an act of love and that love is a verb. It is up to all of us to love, today!

NIKKOLAS SMITH Artivist, Author, Illustrator