“The Forgotten Man” By Jon McNaughton

It is a very powerful and controversial masterpiece where I got lost, not only on his technique and attention to detail, but on the message. There are art paintings where the message and the mind of the artist gets lost in canvas, or it’s left for us to interpret. This one’s not-this is a smack to the face and a great reality check.

From CBS, Las Vegas:

In front of the White House a man is sitting on a park bench in the throes of depression. He is surrounded by 43 presidents. In the forefront, purposefully ignoring the depressed man is President Obama, whose right foot is stepping on the Constitution. James Madison is next to Obama, pleading with him to stop.

This tableau is called “The Forgotten Man”, a painting by Jon McNaughton, an artist who is known for his politically-charged work.

The painting, which uses objects such as discarded dollar bills as symbols and scraps of paper with individual constitutional amendments scrawled onto them, has been making the rounds across the Internet.

The painting was initially released in 2010 and has resurfaced, causing a stir when it appeared for a caption contest on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s blog.

Watch the YouTube video below, and I hope that this painting shows not only precision and technique, but the reality that we face if we don’t wake up.

You can follow him on Facebook here.