Elements of Hope: Barack Obama

After Obama was elected I was moved and wanted to include his image in the Element series.  I began by surfing the web for an image I wanted to work with, an image that looks most like him and one that the public is most familiar with.  Even if his head was painted as a silhouette, I wanted to find a photo that was unmistakably him.  After finding the photo I already had an Element (sky and water) that was not really working and one that I had done a year ago.  I began a free hand drawing over this painted sky and water background. I got the eyes and ears right I continued with the face. I was working on a sheet of plywood of 2x2 feet.  I knew I wanted to capture the moment, mood and the feeling of the people.  I began a literal process of cutting out images from the newspapers that captured these expressions of the common person.  I also wanted to include text that spoke of the main issue of the moment, an issue that was never really discussed by him on the campaign trail, RACE.  I wanted to include some stats, some celebs, his family, lots of people with flags that would create his portrait.  In detail, his top lip is a crowd of people from at night he accepted the position.  His lower lip the flag, and in his eyes, his daughters.  

This piece was well received by friends and was turned into a poster so that all can have a copy of  Elements of Hope.  Later the piece was featured on CNN's Larry King Live.