12"x10"; pen&ink on watercolor paper.
US politics has been really, really depressing of late. Funding for essential services is being cut left and right while millionaires get tax cuts, multi-billion-dollar corporations pay no taxes at all, and hundreds of billions are wasted in unwinnable wars. The immigrants upon which our economy depends are criminalized with no path to citizenship. The very structure of democracy is under attack as the right redefines who has enough privilege to vote. And through it all, the relentless trumpet of American exceptionalism. The best country on earth. Where anyone can achieve their dreams with hard work and hope. The leader of the free world.
Here's what I think of your American exceptionalism. Your "shining city upon the hill." Drenched in oil and corruption, the only thing that trickles down to the workers is the filth of factories' runoff. Merit and diversity are drowned in cronyism and plutocracy, and in the face of the greatest nuclear disaster the world has ever seen we bicker and whine about celebrities in rehab.
Politicians! Look at what your policies have wrought. Find an ounce, a bare drop, of compassion in your heart and really, really, look at the people you are destroying.
Read my blog post about this piece.
Original is for sale. Contact the artist for more information.