Framing the Energy and Vision of a Post-Election Revolution

Original art by Todd Goodman, Acrylic Painting on 24"x36" framed canvas. Prints are available on glossy poster or framed canvas. Original for sale.

The day following the 2016 US Presidential Election was a rough one, to say the least. Let's just say that my preferred candidate wasn't in the running. I knew the outcome was possible, but I was still pretty shocked. As I spoke to my family, friends, coworkers and overheard other conversations around town, watched the news, all I could hear was a raging backlash of emotions. When I came home from work I began to cry in disbelief, asking myself, "How could we? Who are we? What do we do next?" My day was spent blinded by anger, fear, and desperation streaming over my consciousness. By the time I got home from work, I quickly realized that I needed to paint, that I couldn't let this disappointing event completely distract my ability to maintain a positive mindset. I decided to paint my emotions and the energy I felt reverberating loudly out of the newly found resistance screaming out of my soul. I needed bright, loud and brilliant colors to represent my frustrations. In that moment my anger ceased to be dark, but became the positive light that I know guides our better instincts. I used the central part of the painting to represent the unbridled anger and energy, what I saw as righteous anger against the impending disaster of Trumpism in America. Then I created the border around that energy as a means of focusing it, a metaphor for our need to focus the resistance like a laser beam, to not let our emotions get the better of us. It further represents the foundation of our of moral and ethical home, the institutions and traditions that our civilization needs to sustain a free democracy.