William Powhida: Sellout: The Bastard Tour and Other News

It's been a long summer. I'm pleased to say that my recent solo show opened last Thursday night in Seattle at Platform Gallery to the 1st Thursday masses who seemed to enjoy the absurd travails of the fictional William Powhida searching for rock stardom. One African-American gentleman approached me and said "Man, when I come to an art gallery, this isn't what I expect. It's not what I'd call art. I like it."

Tom Sanford's Poster for Sellout: The Bastard Tour in context

His comments were echoed by another young woman on Saturday who simply said "It's nice to see something completely different." I'm not sure what they said exactly (brown liquor), but in the absence of commerce, I'll take it. If anyone is waiting for a new Powhida, they are all in Seattle.

The First Thursday crowd in Seattle

Well, not all of it, exactly. I've donated a small John McCain Hex drawing

to the Dieu Donne
Benefit auction and am finishing a drawing for The Drawing Center Benefit. Please go and support those fine institutions because if John McCain wins, there will be zero federal dollars for the arts. Fuck John McLame and Sarah Fey.

I really hope that whatever your political affiliation maybe that you are considering the long term implications of your vote in November. Whoever takes office will be responsible for two to three Supreme Court appointees. A McCain/Palin administration would inevitably tip the balance towards a deeply conservative bench for decades. An Obama/Biden administration may provide some necessary balance to the court.

While there are huge obstacles facing the country from the wars in the Middle East to the turgid economy, I feel that McCain/Palin won't just be another four years of the disastrous policies of the Cheney/Bush (that's right assholes) misadministration, but extending them for decades through like-minded conservative judges who interpret the Constitution like it's 1787.

If you live outside of New York, where my vote will only win Obama so many delegates, please consider the long term implications of your decision. This is a crucial election year for the long term direction of the nation. Please don't mistake my satire for apathy. I may be a cynical fuck, but I support women's rights, diplomacy, gun control, separation of church and state, and checks and fucking balances. I can't get behind the continuing violation of privacy, torture, war, tax breaks for corporations (ie greed), faith-based reasoning based on literal interpretations of the Bible, and trickle down economics. Shit rolls down hill, not gold.

Anyway, I make art, not policy so here's some installation shots from the show.