Ahhh ... Politics

There's some London/New York talking about my political paintings so I thought it might be helpful just to bing up my four Obama/McCain paintings.

First, of course, is this ... just to give you a sense of scale (Note: if you double click the photos they blow way up so you can read the writing):



Here's Obama, as annotated during the week of the Democratic National Convention:



And here's McCain, likewise:



Of the four, this is my favorite (although I apologize for the darkness of the photo). There was a certain innocence in the early fall--nobody had quite wrapped their heads yet around the Lehman Bros. and AIG implications--and the annotations on this painting were more about the Palin nomination than anything else. You can argue that it is the most pro-Obama painting of the four.

On Election Day I put the second Obama and McCain paintings up for annotation. The idea was that on the actual day of the election, the overriding emotion was exhaustion. I didn't want either one to look happy.

McCain, in fact, looks like he's ready to cry.



This is my least favorite of the four. But I do like the big red message on the lower left hand corner. I voted for Obama, but I can understand the sentiment. Agree with it, even.

Obama, on the other hand, seems to be changing. He's putting on the presidential mask--kind of a cross between Teddy Roosevelt and the Phantom of the Opera:



At least that's how I see it.

Somebody wrote me a nasty comment around that time, suggesting that it doesn't look at all like the man himself. Me? I always thought that was the least important part.