EFEMERAL ART


This American Carnage



STATE OF THE UNION





Oil on Canvas

30x40''



This was the first painting of this American political landscape series began on Jan 20, 2017. Visual threading of text from conversations with constituents, tweets, news, and imagery from portraits of Americans and maps depicting environmental racism. The series surrounds the outrage and dis-ease overcome by the progressive American public during the Trump inauguration and presidency while simultaneously creating an American portrait that aesthetically draws viewer's interest into the underlying content.



COLOUR THEORY





Oil on Canvas

30x40''



This painting references institutionalized racism and new age white supremacy, which has been supported by Trump and many of his colleagues.



birther campaign





Oil on Canvas

30x40''

NFS


Trump owes much success of his campaign to igniting racist sentiment and doubt around the Obama Administration. He repeatedly accused President Obama of being born outside the US, bringing attention to Obama’s middle name ‘Hussein’ by demanding public release of his long form birth certificate in order to compound white supremacist nationalism with the fear of Muslims. During the Highway 62 Open Studio Tours, a Trump supporter shoved a tissue down his butt crack and wiped it on the birth certificate part of this painting, insisting that it was 'bullshit'.



national insecurity





Oil and Aluminum on Canvas

30x40''


Layers of Trump's tweets from 2013-2018 form the face of America.



white li(k)es matter



Oil and Aluminum on Canvas

30x40''


This painting began as a 40x30’’white washing of BLM in response to All Lives Matter. Russia’s interference with the 2016 election layered on ‘white (Russian) likes matter’ as the Trump campaign propelled American diversity into divisiveness for personal political gain. Figuratively speaking, Trump stands tweeting to the left of WTC 7 and the Twin (Trump) Towers to compare the devastation of his administration to that of his Republican predecessor George W Bush.



political wildfires



Oil on Canvas

30x40''


Originating as a 40x30’’ painting on pregnancy and Trumps Pro-Life campaign, the content was quickly aborted as Trump moved from repealing women’s rights abroad to removing environmental regulations protecting wilderness from being raped by pipelines, fracking, mining, and deforestation which has led to flooding, drought, and wildfires. When Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, California was facing the most deadly and destructive wildfire season on record. Women's rights and the wilderness were simultaneously set on fire. This overlay of imagery is inspired by the Erksine Fire which took homes of my close friends and came within half mile of where I was living in California June 2016.



black snake



Oil on Canvas

30x40''


The dotted line represents the original route for the Dakota Access Pipeline (as well as the rubber bullets used against peaceful noDAPL protesters), which was rejected after complaints of potential water contamination from the mainly white town of Bismark. The pipeline was re-routed though Oceti Sakowin territory, threatening the health of the Missouri river and water source for Standing Rock Reservation downstream. The insinuating noDAPL protests taking place through harsh winter conditions were plagued with media blackouts and violent human rights violations by police and the National Guard. Compensation for over 150 years of violations of the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty currently stands just over $1bn, but many of the Oyate People have repeatedly insisted that this land is not for sale.



maga



Oil on Canvas

30x40''


While searching for Make America Great Again text, I found it often appeared online in Google translated Russian Trump merch (hats, t-shirts etc), so I chose to overlay the translations.