Art & Political Commitment

El Árbol de Muerte de Bush
Bush's Tree of Death
(Acrylic on canvas. 24"×30"/60cm ×76cm)

Tony de Carlo's own words on his work:

"The centerpiece – the Tree itself – is based on and intertwined with the most infamous photograph the Bush regime has given the world: the "State of Liberty" photograph of the prisoner from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
There were a lot of things Dubya gave the USA that I simply could not figure a way to simply portray. The lost jobs, the millions without health insurance, the attack on a woman's right to choose, the hypocrisy, all of the children left behind, the fear mongering, the lobbyists, the Saudis, his DUI (driving under the influence) convictions, his secrecy, his creepy cabinet, his Stepford wife and her manslaughter conviction, his AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave), his stuttering clumsiness and misspeaks, his record deficits, his pandering to the lowest common denominator, his "just keep shopping" advice to Americans during war, his total failure at diplomacy which led to war, the world's resentment of us, his hillbilly dirt ranch and his ugly ass parents.
I can only wonder how many more symbols of death and destruction Bush will leave us with after another four more years in office: too many to fit on one painting.
Peace! – A word not in the Bush administration's vocabulary…"

The canvas is itself a powerful dysphemistic manifesto and Tony de Carlo made a list of the symbols depicted in the painting. Here's part of it.

· "A Tombstone simply marked "M+" for the more than 2,000 dead Americans so far in Iraq.
· A gushing oil well. I should have made it dry, since Dubya's companies all went broke, just like his country is doing.
· His Yale megaphone from his days as a male cheerleader – how gay!
· That beautiful fake plastic turkey he flew across the world to deliver to the troops on Thanksgiving 2005, to pose for a laughable photo op.
· A burning cross – the eternal symbol for using the love of Jesus to justify hating others.
· An army tank, one of several military bully symbols I used.
· A falling bomb.
· A burning civilian home.
· That laughable rainbow-colored Terrorist Warning Level chart. Gays are getting married: raise the Terrorist Warning Level to red!
· The now-classic "My Pet Goat" book he continued to read for seven minutes after being told America was under attack on 9/11.
· Below the "My Pet Goat" book is my made up book, titled "My Gay Scape Goat", for Bush's shameful scape-goating of gay Americans. He'll go to war to bring "freedom" to Iraqis, but if you're a gay American, he'll work hard to remove your freedoms, deny you equal protection under the law and change the Constitution to do it.
· More militaristic symbols – a machine gun, an attack helicopter, a bomber plane – and domestically – an Uzi we can all go out and buy now since the ban on assault weapons was allowed to expire.
· A split USA (on left in green), symbol of Bush's pledge to be a "uniter, not a divider"…
· Below that symbol is the Halliburton logo, symbol of corporate greed.
· The World Trade Center.
· An oil well – the real reason we're in Iraq.
· Bush's alter ego/counterpart/personal symbol – a chimp that resembles Dubya more than Jeb does.
· The pentagon on fire.
· The stacks of gold and money, symbols of greed, excess, and materialism.
· The burning/trashing of the Bill of Rights.
· A record with "Debt", symbolizing the record debt he's given future generations to pay off for him.
· A dunce cap/hat. He ain't the brightest bulb in the drawer – "Don't misunderestimate me".
· The epitome of corporate greed and scandal – Enron's logo.
· The burning bush – last time someone listened to a burning bush, they wandered the desert for 40 years, which is what the USA may end up doing in Iraq.
· The trashed Constitution, which Bush wants amended seven times. He must really hate this country's founding fathers…
· The trashed earth and water, littered with oil wells.
· And finally, the government censored portrayal of reality – an American flag-draped coffin coming home."