Drawing: VOTE TO SAVE DEMOCRACY!

VOTE TO SAVE DEMOCRACY!

Drawing: VOTE TO SAVE DEMOCRACY! Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States. Media: Pencil, 9" x 12" mixed media paper. Drawing tinted digitally.

I listened to Former U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to Nevadans, made October 22, on the UNLV campus. Its main message: VOTE! 

“The consequences of anybody here, not turning out and doing everything you can to get your friends, neighbors, family to turn out, the consequences of you staying home would be profoundly dangerous to this country, to our democracy.”

Voting rights are an integral part of democracy. Our country is suffering now from corruption playing out at the highest levels of government. Voting can help support a return of balance of power. 

When I was younger I thought my vote didn't matter, and admittedly, I feel powerless as I witness the present administration and congress violate the constitutional principles of our democratic government.

Yesterday I voted in the 2018 midterms, a full 2 weeks ahead of Nov 6, Election Day, by going to my county courthouse. I urge you to vote early, too, especially if you have reason to feel concerned that voter suppression tactics are being deployed in the area where you live. In some parts of the country voter suppression is real.

A note about the drawing: In most pictures I have seen of Barack Obama his face expresses the optimism and sense of enduring and deeply-rooted hope he also conveys when he speaks. 

The concern with which I am portraying Obama in this drawing comes not from any photograph I have seen. I think that beneath the optimism he must surely also be gravely concerned about the erosion of democratic government in this country. And in the end that expression of concern is truly very much mine.