October 10, 2009
One Nation Under God
Artist Jon McNaughton of Utah has created a painting inspired by a vision he received during the 2008 elections. The painting — titled “One Nation Under God” — depicts Jesus surrounded by characters from American history plus Satan. Some of the characters are actual people (Ronald Reagan, James Madison ) and some are archetypes (handicapped child, liberal news reporter). The “liberal news reporter,” along with the professor clutching Darwin’s Origin Of Species and the judge weeping over Roe vs. Wade are huddled in the lower right hand corner of the painting, next to Satan. (The pregnant woman is also in Satan’s corner.)
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It’s really ok. Global warming will take care of these people. It is nature’s way of dealing with this kind of thing.
Isn’t it strange that the light in biblically inspired painting and etchings always seems to make the world depicted in the work look like a cave, or a land at the center of the Earth. I wonder if that goes all the way back to the imagery of the middle ages, which reflects a cosmology that is stunted by light and dark / up and down barriers to our access to knowledge and meaning. Maybe that’s why I so often see religious imagery ( of European derivation) as foreboding, even when it’s aiming at signifying glory. I love Dante, but for me the images the poetry conjures–even in, say, his Paradiso–seem to reveal a heaven sure to cause claustrophobia in minutes. There’s a great book related to this topic–Emile Male’s The Gothic Image. I recommend it.
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Yes, that’s a rather astute observation. The imagery followed the religious and social vibe: lots of dark and light extremes and brutish authority, and of course by comparison with our sense of the world, these worlds were extremely insular. The interesting thing for me is that this picture sucks the world to the size of Jesus and some Americans. Which indicates that the world view implied there is similar to that of the middle ages, or perhaps an attempt to claw their way back to that sense of the world. As I said, it is ok. Jesus is in cahoots with Gaia, who will shit on these people, in her own good time.
Wow, this reminds me of a childhood visit to the 1964 (New York) World’s Fair. I was unaccountably drawn to glimpses of murals I saw within the pavilion of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (about whom I knew less than zero) and began drifting toward its entrance.
“Honey,” my father said, “we don’t want to go there.”
Back after chores; thank you Lucy for the observations about the American universe depicted here–that fits to a T. And Sheila–I Love the story of a parent warning you away from that particular pavilion. I remember doing similar things when Flannery was young. It was usually printed matter, though, that I didn’t want her sucked in by: “Look! This says it has the key to answers for all the questions in the world!”
Actually, knowing your rebellious spirit, Sheils, I’m surprised we didn’t lose you to the moonies long ago.
You know, forbidden fruit and all that.
Moonies! Are they still around? Now every time I hear of them I think of DeLillo’s book. Of the vans with team leaders taking dozens of runaways all around a big city selling flowers, with harsh punishments for not meeting quotas. You would think that a runaway would, well–run away, but apparently they didn’t. Or they ran to Christian cults and got roped into the same thing.
I met a bunch of moonies in midtown in yellow George Washington outfits once. It was all so very strange and compelling. They gave me a leaflet and I took a picture.
I met some Moonies once when I was obviously destitute, and they asked me for money. (Or maybe I’m thinking of Krishnas….)
I sorta like the krishes. They make some good food sometimes.
Oh! There’s a great restaurant very close to us called Kalachangi. It’s run by Krishnas and is housed in an old church that was rebuilt with large plastic domes and ornate thresholds all around. It looks like a place Ken and Barbie would live in. Great food, though. If you don’t want meat, which we don’t.
Exactly. There’s a Govinda’s in Dublin on Aungier street that I like to visit when I’m in town. There was one in København, too. During the meal, I got up and went into the kitchen to see the chef. Your food does not taste good, I told him. What is the matter? And he sighed, and he told me how his woman had just left him. He cried into his soup. We talked. You can do this kind of thing in a Krishna restaurant.
Oh I love that story, Lucy. I love it that you went into the kitchen to scold the chef and ended up comforting him. Your heart presides.
Lucy’s like that.