Three months had gone by since my first showing at the VFW. In that time I’ve manage to show all four of my Tarot Card paintings and two of the three the Heart Traps. So what’s next? I’ve noticed the other artists show the same work month after month, which is not something I will do. I was prepared to pack up and not show at all if I couldn’t come up with something new for the fourth month in September’s showing.

I was told that ultra-political art was not accepted due to some Charter the VFW has with the city of Denver which pretty much shuts the door on most of my art, so I was pressed to find replacements for what I currently had hanging. I decided to gamble on showing some Covid pieces, not just the art but something different, photos of the art that were put out on the street. I’d been wanting to touch up existing photos in order to make them available for sale. This was my chance to do that. I purchased a 36 inch x 100 foot long roll of Kodak, Professional Luster paper for the images. I’d never printed on photo paper before so I was a bit nervous about it. I didn’t open the box with the roll of paper for close to two weeks. When those first prints came out I was in love with not only how nice they looked but how sturdy they felt. These weren’t flimsy prints. The colors popped, the images were beautiful and the paper felt amazing. I decide on what I would consider medium size prints at 22×28” and 24×36.” The pieces I’d decided on were the “Alec Baldwin, “Take the Shot” … the Invasion of the Body Snatchers “Snitchers” … Fauchi “Pinhead” … Gavin Newsom “Reptile Newsom” … the Obey parody “Comply” … and the “Anti-Vaxxer” photos.

A little over a week was dedicated to preparing the images. I took control of just about every element in the composition in order for them to fit into a couple of different photo sizes. I will admit though, I felt more and more depressed with every day I spent working on them thinking that there was now way in hell they would accept any of them. I thought that they were too hot politically and I was wasting my time. To make matters worse, I decided to swing for the fences by presenting two huge metal pieces from my Totem series, the “COVID” and the “LA RIOT” totems. There was no way in hell they’d allow either to hang, no way at all. The thought that this was a totally wasting my time was seriously starting to wear on me. While I loved the art and the photos I just knew none of it would be shown.

Then came the day to present the pieces. Everything was carefully laid out. The metal Totems were placed on grey blankets to protect the floor. People did mill about looking at the pieces. One older Mexican man asked, “Is this that asshole that got killed?” He pointed at the Gavin Newsom Reptile photo. As far as I knew Gavin was still alive, so I asked him, “what asshole is that?” He replied, “Charlie Kirk.” Maybe he was trying to piss me off, I didn’t know, I didn’t care. I mentioned that it wasn’t Charlie, it was Gavin Newsom. This was not a great start. I though he was going to be one of the judges. Thankfully he wasn’t.

Then I saw who the judges were going to be. One of them I figured was a hardcore lefty who’d worked in Hollywood, no doubt vaxxed to the gills, also not good, because the pieces were anti-vaccine. When they came around to consider my work I was genuinely shocked. The comments I heard, I wish I remembered them, were extremely reasonable. Not because they were complimentary, I vaguely remember them focusing on the content of the piece and how the pieces were executed. I was impressed. I didn’t sense any bias what so ever. And they allowed me to hang which ever pieces I wanted. Saying that I was happy wouldn’t give justice to how I felt. I felt relieved, like I could breathe. It wasn’t a waste of time, they aren’t that politically closed minded after all. I was impressed. Something inside of me changed.

The Tarot cards and the Heart Traps were taken down, replaced with the new covid pieces. The space that I was assigned seems a bit boxed in, but I got a space! It’s not huge, but I managed to fit the one huge metal Covid Totem and three 24”x36” framed photos.

I’m thankful for this opportunity to show in Denver regardless of how much or how little space I have to hang work. It’s a blessing that I’m thankful for. I hope to see you First Friday, September 4th at the Denver VFW, Post#1 located at 841 Santa Fe Dr. Denver CO 80204