Love / Hate Relationship

I have a love / hate relationship with George Washington. Growing up we all learned what a great patriot he was, how he is the Father of our country and that he never told a lie. We were never told about his owning slaves. I’m not sure when I learned this but it wasn’t as a child. That sort of put a damper on things. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise because he was a rich, white farmer and enslaving people was common…. but it was a surprise anyway. I found inspiration in a patriotic way while visiting Philadelphia and touring the actual sites of the birth of our nation. I produced a series of stamp pieces using George’s image, some positive, some not and some just plain silly. Dichotomy / Dichotomy was printed to be hung upside down depending on current thoughts on him. George Discovers the Dangers of Wooden Teeth and Birthday Cake was a silly one. After printing that one I discovered his teeth weren’t wood as we had always been taught, they were made from the teeth of his slaves. That knocked me back into the negative mode and I produced They Weren’t Wood. In the series of 10 – 15 works if the image is a positive he has a halo, if it is a negative he has red Xs on his eyes.

Where do you draw the line when you see the shortcomings of your heroes? Many, many of the people we look up to had really nasty things in their lives. Do we strike all the positive things they’ve accomplished? How much is too much? It is a question I struggle with.