YES I DO.
As the world watches the fall of Kabul and the endless comparisons by pundits, media outlets and talking heads to Saigon, the Suez or the Marshall Plan, once again, the BBN series is as relevant as ever.
No You Don't.
I am often accused of not painting “the moment.” When in truth, I don’t paint the moment those people want me to. I did not paint the pandemic. I did not paint BLM. Last year,
galleries and art groups did backflips looking for the same old tired tropes being rendered by pretend woke artists who “paint the moment”.
Snooze. I don’t virtue signal. I actually do stuff. The ‘atta boys and the do-gooder white liberal accolades, with their black squares of solidarity ...I don't need that.
The communities, groups and people I help, know what I do. So no. I don’t paint “those” moments. But I do paint “of the moment”.
Prove it.
Boy & Bear is an indictment of failed Soviet doctrine in Afghanistan, painted on Soviet Afghan currency of the very late 1970’s and 80’s. You may ask, “How is that relevant?” In short:
Because what the Mujahidin did to the Soviets, with our help, in the 1980’s, the Taliban did to us in the 2000’s. And what is the Taliban? A creation of the former leaders of the Mujahidin.
How could we not see this? I think we did. Before I go on an indictment of the Wolfowitz doctrine and get into armchair geopolitical power struggles or the nuances of the historical nature of the term, Mujahidin,
let's just look at Boy & Bear. It is all in there.