I was invited to do a portrait of a U.S. President for a show titled "All the President's Men" at Leia Bell's fine gallery Signed and Numbered in Salt Lake City.
Naturally I chose Richard Nixon. His resignation speech when I was 4 years old is one of my first vivid memories. I knew I'd have fun drawing his likeness and distorting it to my own ends and point of view on his criminal presidency.
Started off with a line drawing on claybord:
Scratchboard process:
And the final prints: (editioned on Red and Slate Grey)
And now for some choice Nixon quotes:
"Always remember that others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself."
"People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I earned everything I've got. "
"Under the doctrine of separation of powers, the manner in which the president personally exercises his assigned executive powers is not subject to questioning by another branch of government. "
"Well, I screwed it up real good, didn't I? "
"I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as president I must put the interests of America first Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. "
This print is available in my Etsy shop.
1 comment:
Well, Nixon "earned" our wrath didn't he? and Watergate seems trivial in the wake of other incidents perpetrated before and after by greater and lesser ghouls. If I knew more about him I could probably say he only got caught shoplifting when he was actually the fully functioning understudy of some anti-christ.
However, he paid the nation enough respect to step down when nowadays the accused conduct all interviews comfortably seated between the pile of severed heads and mountain of money that is the refuse and booty of what we politely refer to as their CRIME. Smashing portrait! I love the way you didn't go too crazy with his nose and even a straight rendering leaves him imbedded in our national hindsight as some caricature.
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