Progression: Terrorist Attacks
This is part of the Men Who Rule The World series; these two unidentified (yet vaguely familiar-looking) men in suits are part of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (I think...?). That is really all that one needs to know. Who they are, and what they are doing or saying is not important. What is important is the imagery; every individual in our society has a similar mind's-eye vision of authority, and very few people can ever attach real names and other background to this authority. It's simply men in suits. I found this example particularly interesting because while their demeanor is authoritative, they have these disarming looks of disapproval in their eyes. They look irritated, and to make matters worse, they look irritated with YOU. It almost looks as though the guy on the right is telling you to sit down and shut the hell up. I like that.
This is a painting that I worked on casually over the course of several months. This was my "sitting-down" piece--when I got tired of standing and working on larger paintings, I would switch to this one so I could take a break and sit down. As a result, a painting that should have only taken a couple of weeks to complete ended up taking about six months.