Rini's Art - and Yours

Rini Templeton's powerful images of justice are available to activists -- for free

Do you find yourself looking for graphics for your next email or social media post? If you often wish you had a ready source, we have a recommendation. Years ago a coworker introduced us to the art of Rini Templeton. Decades later, Rini’s images are available online for activists and organizers to use in their work. Read on to learn more about this treasure trove from this special artist.

A brilliant child who published poems, drew compulsively, and — at age eleven — was admitted to the University of Chicago Lab School, Rini Templeton was drawn to fight for justice. From the late-Fifties to the mid-Eighties, she joined in progressive causes in the U.S., Mexico, Cuba, and Central America.

Wherever her passion for justice took her, Rini never wavered in her commitment. In Cuba, she taught literacy and cut sugar cane. In Nicaragua, she taught workers to make educational materials. In Taos, NM, she taught art and worked for various progressive journals. And everywhere she went, she drew.

Xerox Art

Rini called her bold black-and-white images "Xerox art" in hopes that activists and organizers would copy them for use in their own banners, signs, leaflets, newsletters, even T-shirts.

Rini’s drawings included workers, women and children, celebrations, struggles, organizing, and many images from daily life. A labor strike, a community effort to save a school or hospital, peasants battling for land, a celebration of International Women's Day, a march for peace — Rini was there and brought back the pictures.

In all Rini’s work, you can feel a unity with grassroots people across national and racial lines. Out of typical modesty, she almost never signed a drawing. As a result, her style is widely recognized but her name is not.

Rini Remembered

Rini spent her last dozen years in Mexico, working with embattled natives and campesinos. She died in Mexico City, of unknown causes, in 1986. She was only 51. Two years later, Rini’s artwork was collected in a bilingual book. Entitled The Art of Rini Templeton: Where There is Life and Struggle/El Arte de Rini Templeton: Donde hay vida y lucha, the U.S. editorial coordinator was Elizabeth (Betita) Martinez. The Mexican team included five editors from the Punto Crítico magazine collective together with a production coordinator. All had worked with Rini extensively.

Though the book is out of print, Rini’s work remains available through riniart.com, a website made possible by the generous support of Rini's sister, Lynne Brickley.

Riniart.com

The website includes 600 drawings, organized by theme, with brief texts in English explaining the story behind each set of drawings. There is also a short biography of Rini.

In the spirit of Rini Templeton's life and work, activists serving progressive causes are invited to use her drawings in leaflets, newsletters, banners and picket signs or for similar non-commercial purposes. Those wishing to use drawings in an item for sale, such as a book, should write to the Rini Templeton Memorial Fund, c/o Elizabeth Martinez, 3545 24th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110. A reasonable fee will be asked, to help maintain the website.

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