Mouth of American Gun

Revised version of the commentary for Mouth of American Gun.

Mouth of American Gun (full view)

This work was created as a reaction to the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy in 1968. The medium is Koh-I-Noor ink, acrylic paint and resin on pasteboard laminated on plywood. The dimensions are 5 x 7 feet.

The work represents the violence of American society both real and that which is expressed in our entertainment and our archetypes.

For my generation, the first strike against America was the assassination of President Kennedy. The reaction to that event was grief and loss. On the night of that terrible day both my roommate and I expressed our hopelessness by racing some nameless driver down a freeway through a construction zone at 95 miles and hour. The arresting officers let us go, probably as depressed and confused as we were. All of us in tears on that empty freeway. Not only had the President of the United States died but faith in the office of the President died as well. For an uneventful college student it was the end of a faith in the distant mechanics of our government. Something else had climbed into the saddle.

Even far more sinister was the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy, which took place four years later. American Gun was born on the floor of a medical research lab during my slow days running FSH tests for the clinic. It was my ineffable reaction to the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy. His assassination signified that the plan to take control of America was marching relentlessly forward and taking place very close to home.

Mouth of American Gun (detail: lower center)

Mouth of American Gun (detail center left)

Mouth of American Gun (detail: upper center)

Mouth of American Gun (detail: lower screen right)