Homeland “Security” in Camouflage

I guess you may have read in the news about federal troups (deployed by Trump) invading Portland, Oregon to “restore order” after there were 50 nights of demonstrations against police brutality. The word invading is mine, since they were not invited to “help” by the local police or mayor or governor AND they caused an escalation in the violence they were supposedly there to quell. Picture this. . .camouflaged officers jumping out of vans to grab protesters without explanation.

Many of us are asking, is this really my country or a fascist state?!

Got me to thinking. . .how to tell the story in the way I know. . .with paint. . .because words just failed me.

For some breaking news check out this NYTimes article, but only if you can handle a spike in blood pressure!

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Police Riot Fashion

I’ve been quite impressed with police riot fashion. It seems to be a cross between Darth Vader and giant murder hornets, don’t you think? When I got done with the drawing I realized that I left off a lot of things – walkie talkie, tear gas, pepper spray, stun grenades, a rifle that shoots the rubber bullets, and those plastic ties they use when they arrest people. Did I leave out anything?

 

Black Lives Matter

I’ve been pouring over images of demonstrations around the country and world, sharing in the grief, anger, and solidarity of this grass roots movement demanding the end of police brutality. As a visual artist I have been looking for new ways to draw the winds of change.

I simply don’t know how to do a sketch of a scene like the one above, a demonstration in Santa Rosa, California, live.  So I decided to practice, to be ready to sketch again live when I might have figured it out. So I put the pen to paper and kept it moving, not concerning myself with accuracy. I was ready to toss the results, or hide them, but then I liked the energy of it. I liked the squiggly lines and getting to use my various marking pens, and not worrying about perspective and shadow shapes and such. I could feel the energy of the crowd and it was liberating (art-wise at least)!

This picture evolved after spending almost an hour scrolling through pictures and articles from around the country which were posted in the New York Times on line issue. I started with the speaker in the middle and kept adding on until I filled enough of the picture space. And all the time imagining what it was like to be a young demonstrator face down in a park full of hundreds of others, enacting the experience of George Floyd under the knee of a cop, unable to breathe for over eight minutes.

Virus plus Violence

The art today speaks to what is in my heart. No more words necessary.

Clear Tar Gel, acrylic inks, gel pen on w/c paper