"Portland 2020"

Portland 2020

Oil on canvas, 45"x45"

In my last post, I mentioned a painting that was underway that would address the issue of federal agents, dressed and equipped like combat soldiers, being deployed to deal with Black Lives Matter protesters.  That painting is now completed.

I was against the very idea of deploying these soldiers from the very beginning.  In America, we don't use soldiers against our own people.  Only dictatorships and failed states do that.  The cities didn't want them, but the federal government sent them anyway.  Some argue that they're not soldiers.  But anybody that's wearing Army uniforms, with Army helmets, Army body armor, Army equipment, and Army weapons, is a soldier.

What set me off was the incident in Portland when a Navy vet walked up to a group of these soldiers to talk with them.  While he was doing that, one of them suddenly began beating him with a baton, and another pepper-sprayed him.  This was a totally unprovoked attack by US federal goons.  We don't do that here in this country.  Yet ... these assholes did.

As an artist, this painting is my response to to the Portland attack and similar incidents around the country.  And if these federal agents come to my town, I'll be down there to protest them.