Original artwork - Matters of Conscience series
Best Laid Plans ... Leave Us Naught but Grief and Pain (Dysfunctional Government)
Acrylic spraypaint on canvas and archival paper
36"H x 48"W
2015
In the last several years the U.S. government has been an exemplar of a dysfunctional organization. One wonders how deep would be the disappointment of the Founding Fathers were they to witness how far from their idyllic plans for governance Washington has strayed. This thought is captured in a composition that appropriates figures from Evelyn Pickering De Morgan's 1910 painting entitled "The Kingdom of Heaven Suffereth Violence and the Violent Take it by Force". The poses and expressions of these figures in De Morgan's painting struck me as representative of grief and pain.