Pouring My Art Out

Today was my second official protest in downtown Portland. I mean official to me, not to anyone official. I stood outside City Hall with… ummm… Nobody. And I did research this time. Turns out that ‘ongoing’ protests do not actually continue ‘going on’ continuously. But I am learning, adapting. I am getting way ahead of myself.

Let’s start early this morning. probably way too early, as we will see.

You can see how there might perhaps be some slight sign of my displeasure at the current state of affairs, however subtle it is, and I almost seem to be making some obscure point.

So, what led up to all this?

I spent all week painting signs, building my moral outrage, glad for a way to use art to make a stand. But my favorite creation, so far, is the mask of liberty!

Oh yeah, despair tinged with a deep sadness. Broken by time and neglect, and now purposeful vandalism, she still stands on wobbly legs, Worn and beaten, and aged beyond her time, she no longer cries for the tired and poor of other lands, but those of the land she resides over.

Sorry, forgot to turn off the moral outrage.

Back to our story. I was cruising the hot spots downtown, you know, places where those ‘ongoing’ protests were supposedly, uh going on. I drove between the ICE Headquarters Building and the City Hall a few times, hitting up parks and other rally points.

Nope, too early, I guess. There was a lot of police activity however.

Long story short, I decided to stage a one-man protest on the steps of City Hall, which is closed on Saturdays, it turns out, but I did not let that deter me. I stood there, without moving, for almost an hour. Because that is how long I paid for parking. I just let my eyes rest, and let the battered Lady Liberty speak for herself. I faced the oncoming traffic, and just kept my face, and the mask, slightly lowered.

I was a temporary art display. It also just occurred to me that I stood there dressed as a woman, or a statue thereof. That will probably anger the ICE holes more than the mask itself. I share the struggle, my sisters, and it is real!

There it is, City Hall. The scene of my sarcastic, irrelevant, artistic hour of silence, a super-sized hissy-fit aimed at an enemy that was nowhere to be seen. My lonely, steadfast vigil. Yet another scream into the void from yours truly.

I did it for all of us, but mostly, of course, I did it for me. Of course I did. That’s what I do. Mostly I wanted to see if I would do it. Or if I would chicken out, and this would vanish like all my other artistic visions over the decades.

Don’t worry, that isn’t the real Liberty Bell… or the real Statue Of Libety.

I have donned the black cape of revolution, and I will swirl it dramtically!

Back Soon.