Karen Fiorito.
A billboard sign depicting President Donald Trump’s face next to explosions and dollar signs created with typography imitating Nazi swastikas went up in downtown Phoenix ON March 17, 2017. (Photo: Johana Restrepo/The Republic).
This happened today in Phoenix. My Anti-@realDonaldTrump billboard. Enjoy. #antitrump #Trump #resist #ImpeachTrump #dumptrump #TheResistance pic.twitter.com/dCpzOk8s95
— Karen Fiorito (@buddhacatpress) March 17, 2017
A menacing Donald Trump is gazing down on Phoenix’s Grand Avenue.
The president is flanked by mushroom clouds and swastikas configured like dollar signs.
“I think a lot of people are feeling this way and I’m just trying to express what I think is on a lot of people’s minds these days,” the billboard’s artist, Karen Fiorito, said Friday in an interview from her California home.
“Something that really concerned us was this idea of a dictatorship where things were going in a certain direction.”
But look closely at the mushroom clouds and you’ll see clown faces. There’s a Russian flag on Trump’s lapel.
“I tried to put a little bit of humor in things that are really dark and hard to take,” Fiorito said.
The billboard art was commissioned by the billboard owner, Beatrice Moore, a longtime patron of the arts on Grand Avenue.
“Some of these issues are so important you can’t not speak out,” Moore said in an interview.
The Trump billboard went up Friday at 11th Avenue and Grand, to coincide with the start of the annual three-day Art Detour event in downtown Phoenix. Moore said it would remain up as long as Trump is president.
Ms. Fiorito is now receiving death threats, a now common bit of behaviour on the part of those who simply cannot cope with any forthright criticism. The first comment in Ms. Fiorito’s tweet about the billboard going up:
Robbie England
@buddhacatpress disgusting California filth, putting up this shit in my town is unacceptable! It WILL come down!
Oooh, her town! I guess it isn’t at all the town of the woman who commissioned the piece. And as a native Californian, Ms. England, have a nice cuppa Shut the Fuck Up, you intolerant bigot.
The willful ignorance on display in the Tweetstream is overwhelming, too. There was one person thinking she made a great point by saying “Trump refused a salary! He gave it to charity!” There’s just one little problem with that one – the Tiny Tyrant did no such thing, and won’t answer any questions as just when that money is going to find its way to a supposed charity.
And we are the “easily triggered, perpetually offended snowflakes”.
Also remember, nothing says “totally not a dictatorship” like making death threats against an artist who nfavourably portrayed the totally not a dictator.
Giliell:
It’s extremely unfortunate that fanatics of all stripes seem to be irony-proof.
It is my current intention to overwrite le penazi posters with a swastika — but I like this swastika+dollar idea… but I need a bit of help here… felt-tip marker or spray paint? Or…?
(I give a vigorous two fingers to the le penazi posters at this mornings market, and heard some applause, which I assume was in response.)
Unless you’re going to buy street art specific felt tips, go with spray paint, it’s cheaper, and you get more coverage, but be sure to wear gloves!
Caine@4, Ok, thanks. I hope to visit the most likely shop which, locally, has the necessary material, tomorrow, in time for the Tuesday-morning market… (Slight glitch is, locally, many shops are closed on Mondays.)
irony-proof -- because all that iron is going to the curtain.