How much impact on can one piece of art have? Primarily through news clips, this video explores several controversies across the country in response to Michael D’Antuono’s provocative painting depicting the rampant racism that’s deeply embedded in our criminal justice system, “A Tale of Two Hoodies.” The video covers eBay’s banning of the piece when the artist attempted to auction it to benefit the Trayvon Martin Foundation in response to eBay allowing George Zimmerman’s to auction his painting for $100,000. The video also covers the firing of an Arizona high school social studies teacher over her including the piece in a final exam. Then the video takes us to Kentucky and Colorado where students were bullied to remove their homages to D’Antuono’s piece from public exhibition.
Michael Moore and Michael D’Antuono in NYC at the 10th anniversary screening of Michael’s Moore’s academy award winning film Bowling for Columbine. I was moved by the movie as I hope Mike was moved by my painting “Brought To You By The NRA.” A decade later, his film remains just as relevant. The Sandy Hook shootings proved that no progress has been made in the decade since. As a matter of fact, since Columbine, congress let the ban on assault weapons expire. Regardless, Mike has done much to bring attention to the lack of gun control. We thank him for that.