CHURCH FOR THUGS: THE WRECKAGE OF THEIR PRESENCE [JAN 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH] - V1
JAN. 2021 — 2023
Acrylic, aerosol paint, ink, oil stick, ink block, chalk marker, graphite, acrylic marker, oil marker on canvas
47 7/8 x 71 7/8 inches
JANUARY 6, 2021:
The January 6 wreckage -- and its aftermath -- was nothing short of horrific.
The televised insurrection. The attack on our U.S. Capital, carried out by armed, domestic terrorists who were called -- incited to violence -- by P.O.T.U.S. 45:
"Proud boys: Stand Back and Stand By."
"You have to Fight Like Hell, Or You're Not Going To Have A Country Anymore."
"Now we're going to MARCH TO THEE CAPITAL, AND I'LL BE THERE WITH YOU."
[Trump did try like hell to join the domestic terrorists he had called there that day, but his Secret Service detail refused his boss's demands to drive him there; enraged -- "I'm the fucking president!!" -- 45 then lunged for the Secret Service detail's clavicle, as Cassidy Hutchinson testified to the January 6 Select Committee, which subsequently included the video clip of Hutchinson recounting that this was reported to her in the Committee's televised public hearings.]
For untold numbers who watched in disbelief that live coverage of a violent, enraged, mad mob -- calling for the then-Vice President to be hung; calling for the Speaker Of The House to be killed; hunting the halls looking for the Senate Majority Leader, other leadership, as well as Members Of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans -- Jan. 6 seemed as terrifying as 9-11.
Most egregious is a domestic terror movement in this country that has representation in our United States Congress.
True, some Republican Members Of Congress seem outright delusional, or just crazy enough to believe their own insane denial of the reality of Jan. 6 and its aftermath. But the majority of Republican MOC who spew nonstop and ever-more-outrageous lies to their constituents -- and to anyone who hears them bloviate from their very public, often-televised platforms -- know very well that they are lying; they only value protecting their power as members of Congress; they have no compunction about fundraising and profiting off of their hoodwinked supporters -- violating their sworn oaths "...To defend and protect the United States Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic..." by obfuscating and denying the truth about the deadly, nightmarish events of that day:
“Jan. 6 was just a normal tourist visit.” -
“January 6 was just another day in January.” --Mike Pence, then Vice President, for whom the violent insurrectionists -- egged on, in real time, by Pence’s angry boss, Trump -- erected a noose and gallows on the grounds, later marauding through the Capital building halls shouting, "HANG MIKE PENCE!"
“January 6 was just another day in January.” - Former V.P. Mike Pence, whose head the then-P.O.T.U.S. had essentially called for that day -- after summoning the insurrectionists to the Capital that day -- "It's going to be WILD!!" -- by broadcasting to and inciting the very people who erected a noose and gallows on the grounds. Trump was reported to know that some some insurrectionists were carrying weapons on Jan. 6. When he learned backstage at the rally that magnetometers were screening insurrectionists for weapons, Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Trump, angry that the Jan. 6 crowds at the ellipse were not large enough, ordered his staff to, "Take the fucking mags away!" “ so that "HIS people -- who were not there to hurt HIM -- would be granted entrance by the Secret Service. Still, even after having his life threatened -- Pence's Secret Service detail scrambled to remove him, his wife, and daughter to safety that day -- Pence, too, lied, and continues to lie, about the truth of the violence and danger that he -- more than anyone else -- experienced first-hand on January 6.
Certain Republican Members Of Congress continue to deny even the reality of the death of Brian Sitnik (sp?) or the four other officers who subsequently lost their lives as a result of trauma suffered as a result of Jan. 6, and its sequelae; as a result of heroically defending our U.S. Capital, Members Of Congress — and defending our very democracy and the Constitutional bedrock principle of peaceful transfers of power.
We The People witnessed with our own eyes the horrors of Jan. 6 -- the "medieval, hand-to-hand combat," the brutal assaults on police officers, the mobs hunting to kill in the halls of the U.S. Capital Building; Members Of Congress who were left in the Chamber being told to put on their emergency gas masks; an insurrectionist being shot as she tried to break in to the House Chambers and refused orders to stop. In spite of the fact that the violent insurrection was all televised, that day and beyond, the gaslighting — trying to get us to deny the reality of what we, collectively, saw and experienced with our own eyes — immediately ensued, That nightmarish reality was and continues to be denied, lied about, distorted, and weaponized -- not only by sitting members of Congress, but the same lies are continuously amplified on Fox “News” and other extreme-right-wing platforms:
“The fiction of Jan. 6….” “It was Antifa, not Trump supporters…” “Jan. 6 was a peaceful protest…”
The reality of 156 police officers and national guard members being severely injured; the reality of the death of Officer Brian Sitnik, followed by 4? Trauma-related officer suicides;
The reality of the horror of a Confederate flag being paraded through the U.S. Capital Building;
THE WRECKAGE OF THEIR PRESENCE: CHURCH FOR THUGS bears witness to the reality of Jan. 6 and its aftermath.
This piece recognizes the heroic Officers who put their lives on the line that day — some losing the battle — as well as those who continue not only to uphold their sworn oaths to defend, daily, the U.S. Capital building, even and including protecting those Members Of Congress who DENY the Truth of Jan. 6, who deny the horrors, the physical injuries, and the ongoing trauma suffered by officers who defended the Capital Building that day; this painting honors officers who continue to courageously Stand In Truth — enduring vilification, death threats, and gaslighting that would drive many of us mad; officers who continue courageously speaking out including testifying before the Impeachment 2 Committee, as well as those who testified to and diligently attended all hearings held by the January 6 Select Committee — and, most honorably, bore witness of the Truth to We The American People via the Committee’s televised public hearings.
The Wreckage Of Their Presence honors these — and all heroes from that day, and now.
In our present Zeitgeist in which we are witnessing, living through, a hydra-headed monster of an attack by those who lust for a fascist, authoritarian takeover of our young, fragile, sacrosanct democratic republic. What we tolerate, we become; this painting underscores that WE ALL are Keepers Of The Light; asks, “What is YOUR truth; what is YOUR piece — what will YOU contribute — to this, our collective existential fight?”