Sunday, August 23, 2009

An artist Scott Terry, and his Prop 8 Sculpture

"Art is not made to decorate apartments. It's an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy." - Pablo Picasso

Quite a few weeks ago, I was introduced to a freelance writer and artist on Twitter, named Scott Terry. He paints watercolors of American pastoral scenes. I am not an art critic, but I find his work beautiful and inspired. I grew up in the farm country of California and his works invoke the peace and beauty that is often overlooked in the rural areas of that state. Scott is an artist first and formost, not an activist, but he was offended by the words of hate used by those supporting Prop H8 in that state. After it passed he was inspired to create a sculpture that he ultimately called "Words of the Stiffnecked People" from Exodus 32:9 (And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people)
Scott describes his piece on his website:

This piece is comprised of 250 wooden blocks, some wrapped with Yes on 8 propaganda and others wrapped in biblical text. They are arranged in a chronological and topographical order, beginning with a miniature Bible in the center and yellow blocks rising out of the chaos and winding their way through a sea of scripture.

I took the words of the fundamentalists and re-printed them on Yes on 8 yard signs and bumper stickers. I gathered the quotes, statistics, history, and headlines and re-arranged them on yellow and blue Protect Marriage material...and then wrapped the remaining blocks with selected pages torn from the Bible and Book of Mormon.

The sculpture is receiving quite a bit of attention since it was first exhibited at the Sacramento Gay Pride event on June 20th, courtesy of the YesOnGayMarriage organization.

It is headed to the California State Employee's convention in Los Angeles over Labor Day, courtesy of the SEIU Human and Civil Rights committee.
It's worth heading over to Scott's site and checking out the pictures of the sculpture and the poster made to go along with it if you can't make the event in LA:
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