Copyright 2009 © David G. Wilson
Acrylic on canvas; 2009, Collection of the artist.
Warning
This painting and text are published via this medium only for the intellectual edification of the general public . No unauthorized commercial use is allowed without expressed written permission.
The election of President Barack Obama has been a source of pride to many Americans; not only those of African descent, but also all Americans who care about the ideals of inclusion. This momentous election demonstrates that America, although sometimes slow in fulfilling its promises eventually delivers and that anyone, regardless of racial, ethnic or gender classification, could be anything he/she wishes to be. So, it is not only an African American triumph, but a triumph for American ideals.
So, in this painting, I have indicated the triumph of American ideals by wrapping his head in Old Glory, the American flag, under which the national bird, the bald eagle soars to greater heights. Only in American would a person of a minority group be accepted and voted in by a plurality for the highest office in the land, regardless of what other counties may claim, they have not proven that equality exists in their pluralist society.
For the background, I have used the blue skies, indicating that the sky is the limit to what anyone may achieve in spite of the high barriers, (the rope strung from the old slave staff to the flagpole) that may be placed in one s way. With Liberty, one can scale the tremendously high obstacles that he/she may encounter. Holding a whip in one hand and the African Nationalist flag in the other, Black Liberty confronts the dangers (indicated by her red coat) of daring adventure as many an African American of high achievement like Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King and Hank Aaron had to face and leaps over the high barrier of exclusion.
On his shoulders is the heavy burden of the Purple Mountains, majestic in the background, upon which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. metaphorically said in his final speech, that he had been to the mountaintops, looked over and seen the Promised Land. That Promised Land is evident in the green pastures among which the viewer, the flagpole and the old slave staff stand.