April Fool's Day, and - January 6th (Carnival No. 5 )

                                                  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