Lorraine Schneider

Ivanah Alexandre

Lorraine Schneider (1925-1972) was an American Anti War Artist, a printmaker. She made her most iconic poster Primer for the Another Mother for Peace campaign. The poster states “war is not healthy for children and other living things” and it is in response to the Vietnam War that was happening in the 1960s. I think one of the brilliant things about this poster is how it childish it looks. It looks like a child grabbed a crayon and doodled a flower and their thoughts. I feel that makes the storytelling component more compelling because it makes it as if the POV is the child which appeals to Pathos and can make the viewer more empathetic. If it were super sophisticated and complex it wouldn’t tell the same story and it would be less powerful. It’s also nice how the stem of the flowers break up this visual text and the flower’s “head” follows the rule of thirds. The muted yellow is the perfect color to use. Yellow usually portrays brightness, happiness, positivity, and life. Yellow is childish almost in the way of how positive it is. The fact that it is muted adds the storytelling because it darkens all of those adjectives I listed before. The fact that the flower is black tells a story as well.

Lorraine unfortunately had a short career however her work still lives on. She had four children of her own so this piece in particular is really art from the heart. Primer is still receiving global recognition and is an iconic political activism piece of art.

“Man will learn to resolve his inevitable difference through nonmilitary alternatives. But it is up to us, the artists. . . to prepare the emotional soil for the last step out of the cave.” -Lorraine Schneider

Image: Schneider, 1996, Primer, print. Created for the Another Mother for Peace campaign.