January 6th, an original acrylic painting
22 X 30" , unframed
( click on image to enlarge )
The first day of April, is the traditional day for playing practical jokes on one's friends
and family members, and then having a good laugh when you reveal that it was all a lie,
and end up by calling the victim of the joke an "April fool"! Such pranks are often crude
and insensitive, when they are played out on a personal level, but when big lies are
created on a national level, the results can be fatally disastrous. Donald Trump told his
foolish and ignorant followers, that he won the presidential election, and that his win was
being stolen from him. He sent them off to invade the congress and kidnap, or perhaps
kill, to prevent his removal from office. The resulting insurrection endangered the lives
of our congress members, desecrated our capitol building, and seriously injured over
one hundred and forty law-enforcement officers, including one who died.
Perhaps the saddest part of Trump's on-going, giant hoax, is that so many of his
poor fools remain so stubbornly ignorant of truth and facts. They continue to get all
of their information from only those sources which agree with their own prejudices
and fears, rather than seek out the truth. They give the impression that their reading
level never rose above the comics books stage.
I have used a composite costume of one such fool, as a subject for the fifth
painting from the Carnival series, called January 6th. It seems appropriate as another
example of the thoughtless and often fatal behavior of our continuing, human carnival.
I suppose some critics will label this painting as political art, and I suppose that is
true, to some degree, but a large part of art has always been political, throughout the
history. Artists have always been thrust into the events and controversies of their
times, on both sides, willingly or not, and we all see things from different frames of
reference. We must react to what is happening around us, and how could that not
affect our work?
I am reminded of one such example of two different artist's points of view, about
the important political events of their time. It was the famous French artist, Jacques
Louis David, who painted the grand, Coronation Of Napoleon, in 1806, glorifying the
self-proclaimed Emperor in sumptuous detail. A year later, Napoleon brutally invaded
Spain, which eventually led to Francisco Goya's creation of the unforgettable painting
called The Third Of May 1808, showing the French soldiers slaughtering Spanish
civilians. They were two artists who aligned themselves with the prevailing powers of
their countries, in order to gain income and find enduring, artistic influence, but only one
gave us the truth of the brutal realities of war.
I never have been aligned with anyone in a position of power, political or otherwise,
but what you see in my work will always be the truth, as I see the truth. April Fool's
are not my style.
Eugene P. McNerney
