Books | jonathanfranklinart

The election of 2016 filled me with dread and disappointment.

A kind of rage festered within me for a couple of years until I could no longer contain it and I decided I needed to lash out and rebel. It came out in the form of the four books featured below, which represent my modest attempt at resistance.

Irony and humor turn out to be great antidotes for anger.

I completed the first versions of the DearLeader series, just around the the onset of the Great Pandemic of 2020. It turns out that that this proved to be a perfect time to settle in and assess what I had been working on over this past almost 50 years.

I began with one book, which led to another, and another, and before I knew it, I had amassed quite a collection of books about the artwork I had been producing.

I even managed a few children's books along the way that included a couple picture books and even a childhood memoir about my earliest memories in Vietnam.

The good news is that it continues to be an interesting journey.

DEARLEADERS After enduring over four excruciating years of incredibleness, it is no surprise that our DearLeader came out with these amazing books. And I had the chance to transcribe and illustrate them.

FOR THE YOUNGER SET This is a small potpourri of what I hope will be an expanding catalog.

ART BOOKS Listed below is a collection of books that represent a retrospective of the range of my work dating back almost 50 years.

They include painting, drawings, collages, photos, and other representations that interest me.

Over a 14 month period starting in November, 2020, our house underwent a major redo. It all started with a leak in the ceiling of our well-worn and well-loved 30 year old kitchen, which was in need of some desperate attention.

One thing led to another and before we knew it, we had a brand new kitchen, two new bathrooms, and a new room under our house.

These three books document that journey.

My younger daughter was born at the end of in 1992 in the age of film and prints. Ten years later everything went digital. This book includes family scenes over that 10 year period.