Congressman Clay has an excellent point. Whether he has a whip hand in this political environment is an open question.
To Matt Shuham and the rest of TPM:
I will point out, once again, that the painting shows some cops and some protestors with “animalistic features.”
It is a mystery to me why TPM continues to follow the lead of losers like Rep. Duncan Hunter and the right-wing outrage factories in noting only the artistic treatment of some of the cops.
Wholeheartedly seconded.
Just take look at Chief Wiggam on the Simpsons. His features are also quite porcine.
Congressman Clay’s press release described the piece this way:
The painting portrays a colorful landscape of symbolic characters representing social injustice, the tragic events in Ferguson and the lingering elements of inequality in modern American society…
I’d say this is an “artful” way to describe it.
The St. Louis American described the piece this way:
His winning work is an acrylic painting featuring a downtown street scene with the Gateway Arch displayed in the background and three police officers with animal heads, two with guns in hand, and a large group of marchers moving toward the police.
I’d say this is false/misleading. As far as I can tell, there are three officers, two of whom have animal heads. One of them is apparently the head of a wild boar/feral hog. The second is hard to identify. One of the protesters has an animal head, which appears to be canine, or perhaps feline. The marchers are incidentally moving toward the police, because the police are in the middle of the route the marchers are taking.
From this story, it seems like a good case might have been made against the painting in the beginning, but once it was deemed to be within the rules, it ought to have stayed on the wall.
It’s tempting to conclude the artist depicted the cops as pigs and the protester as a black panther. Regardless, this reflects one young person’s experience of social trauma. It’s a valid statement.
It’s also inevitable that it’s become a political hot potato. What a stupid waste.
Good. Obviously they approved the painting to hang in the first place. You don’t get to make up the rules ex post facto. That’s bullshit…and that was the only thing that was politically driven about this entire thing.
So next year when a kid from a deep red district wins this award by painting the Confederate flag, how will everyone respond?
If Milo Yanniopolos had said that the painting depicts the hypocritical femi-nazi, BLM, commies being arrested then conservatives would build a shrine in front of it. They take the word of pedo-enablers over all others.
Rep. Hunter and other Repugs who insist that the painting be taken down should remember that attacks on freedom of speech and expression are the first mark of a would-be dictator.
One good thing about this, the painting and its creator, artist David Pulphus, are now famous and Mr. Pulphus work will now have some appreciable value. Good for him!
The way they did this year, with everyone switching sides. And the beat goes on.