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(un)Making America
2018

(un)Making America is a satirical reflection on the real and rumored personalities, habits, decisions, and actions of the 45th president of the United States of America.

The image of Straw Man first came to me in March of 2018 when I was watching a political debate about Donald Trump and one of the commentators referred to his approach as a “straw man argument”. I immediately envisioned a sculpture of Trump made out of straw. This image stayed with me until I finally decided to make it in an attempt to purge him from my mind. I began constructing this series of characters on July 4, 2018. Once I started to make Straw Man, the other two personalities soon crept into my sub consciousness.

For another series of mine, Making Lemonade, I collected disturbing propaganda items from both the 2012 and 2016 U.S. presidential elections with the goal of transforming those items into passive or equally as absurd imagery as the original. Stone Thrower was the second born in the family (un)Making America, which highlights the items I had purchased off the official Donald J. Trump for President 2016 campaign website two-weeks before the election (shirt, buttons, and yard signs). I was conceptually blocked with the Making Lemonade series and had not previously come across an official campaign website with materials that were so nasty and quite frankly hypocritical. I wasn’t sure I should even bother to try and transform those items into something positive but instead shine a mirror on their hatefulness; thus Stone Thrower was conceived. #MePredatorToo quickly followed and other children are gestating in my mind.

The series has been my coping mechanism as a way of dealing with the confusion, fear, and exhaustive daily bombardment in the news of disturbing decisions, ridiculous tweets, and bizarre behaviors that constantly derive from this unconventional leader.

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