Can we talk about that Melania statue?
I'm writing this week's issue from the middle of a very 'Merica family vacation. Over the past few days we've done the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and Valley Forge, where I got to see this statue of George Washington that his family said was the most realistic depiction of him ever made. Art made political headlines this week because of drawings from children held in detention centers that the Smithsonian is reportedly interested in adding to its collection. There was also a statue of first lady Melania Trump in Slovenia that might not make it into the Smithsonian but should. I also look at the artwork used on Twitter by Rep. Justin Amash, who left the Republican Party last week. Considering his choice of header image, it doesn't come as much of a surprise. Yours,
The week in politics and culture
Billionaire and two-time independent presidential candidate Ross Perot has died at age 89. Here’s a painting of “Proet” [sic] I made as a child circa 1992. Most of what I knew about Perot at the time came from watching “All That” on Nickelodeon.
President Trump’s approval rating hit 44% in a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Sunday, his best showing ever in the poll. Trump’s disapproval stands at 53%. 📊
Rep. Eric Swalwell became the first major Democratic candidate to drop out of the presidential race, announcing Monday he’ll instead seek reelection for his U.S. House seat in California.
Billionaire Tom Steyer, who announced in January he would not run for president to instead focus on his campaign to impeach Trump, said today that actually he is going to run for president.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign announced Monday it raised $19.1 million in the second quarter, behind former Vice President Biden ($21.5 million) but ahead of Sens. Bernie Sanders ($18 million) and Kamala Harris ($12 million). Warren’s haul is all the more impressive because of her refusal to do high-dollar fundraisers with big donors. 💰
The World Cup crowd began chanting “equal pay” after the U.S. Women’s team won Sunday. Co-captain Megan Rapinoe said Monday the team would accept Democratic Senate Minority Leader Schumer’s invitation to Capitol Hill but reiterated they didn’t want to go to the White House. 🏆
The National Archives was among the spots hit by flooding in Washington Monday. Don’t worry, the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights are all safe.
Talking activism in her August Vogue cover story, Ariana Grande said, “I would rather sell fewer records and be outspoken about what I think.” She doesn’t have to worry about that sort of either/or, however, because Thank U, Next is the year’s most popular album so far.
Kids held in detention centers tend to draw similar pictures
In 2014, journalists from the Guardian visited Australian detention centers on Christmas Island that held asylum seekers and provided children with paper and pens to draw about their lives there. Kids drew sad, frowning stick figures behind bars.
Their drawings looked a lot like those made public by Dr. Sara Goza, the incoming president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who toured two U.S. detention facilities last month. Social workers showed Goza drawings made by children recently released from Customs and Border Protection custody, including this one that shows sad, frowning stick figures behind bars.
Goza told CBS the first thing that hit her while touring the facilities was the smell. “It was the smell of sweat, urine and feces,” she said. She described the facilities “almost like dog cages with people in each of them.”
The Smithsonian is reportedly interested in adding the children’s drawings to their collection. In a statement, the National Museum of American History said, “The museum has a long commitment to telling the complex and complicated history of the United States and to documenting that history as it unfolds.”
Trump marshaled the iconography of the presidency for Independence Day speech
Trump’s “Salute to America” didn’t turn out to be the campaign rally critics feared it would be. Trump did take advantage of the iconography of his office, though.
While his would-be Democratic opponents marched in small town Fourth of July parades, Trump was flanked by armored vehicles with the Lincoln Monument as backdrop and military officials on stage. The flyovers are estimated to have cost at least $560,000 an hour. Trump set a stage for himself that only a president could and it was the rare occasion he stuck to his script, reading from the Teleprompter from behind rain-drenched security glass. You can read my story about the rally here.
Trump promised the “biggest ever” fireworks show, and it was big alright. So big the sky became too smoky to see much of anything before the show ended and spectators started packing up early. Trump said he plans to host a similar event next year.
If you saw Rep. Amash’s Twitter cover photo, his decision to leave the Republican Party was no surprise
Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan left the Republican Party on July 4 in an op-ed published in the Washington Post. Amash wrote that he’s become disenchanted with party politics and referenced George Washington speaking out against partisanship in his farewell address.
“The founders envisioned Congress as a deliberative body in which outcomes are discovered,” Amash wrote. “We are fast approaching the point, however, where Congress exists as little more than a formality to legitimize outcomes dictated by the president, the speaker of the House and the Senate majority leader.”
Amash’s party defection isn’t too much of a surprise considering that in May he said Trump had engaged in “impeachable conduct.” His Twitter header image, depicting arguing, finger-pointing baboons in powdered wigs, was another clue.
The untitled work, by Marissa Drew, was the grand prize winner of the 2015 Congressional Art Competition for Amash’s Michigan 3rd District. Drew was then a high school Advanced Placement art student and she told School News Network at the time the piece was originally just one baboon, but “it seemed more balanced with two” as well as “much more political.”
Amash said on “State of the Union” that he isn’t ruling out the possibility of a 2020 presidential run.
Can we talk about that Melania statue?
The life-size statue, outside first lady Melania Trump’s hometown of Sevnica, Slovenia, was carved out of a tree with a chainsaw by a local folk artist named Ales Zupevc. Zupevc said in a video about the piece that he’s created busts before, but never a statue of a full figure. My favorite part is the face. Here’s the artist next to his work:
The statue was commissioned by American conceptual artist Brad Downey, who told the New York Times the sculpture was “not a joke” for Zupevc. However, Downey does seem to have a sense of humor.
His recent works include “Tuning Crickets,” where he amplified the sounds of crickets in Spain with professional audio equipment, and “Back to Front,” a coin minted to raise capital for anticapitalist artwork. Amazing.
Yello Field Guide
Street art in Miami's Wynwood district
While I was in Miami for the first Democratic debate, I went street art sighting in the city’s Wynwood neighborhood, one of the top street art districts in the country. The below “Unite In Love” mural of the current and former FLOTUS is by Claudia La Bianca, who said she hopes the piece inspires people to come together “to make positive changes.” Paid subscribers can read my guide here.
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