Rape of the American Youth, 2012. 18" x 24". Silk screen, acrylic, and pencil on canvas.
The structure of this page was taken from a school's yearbook from the 1950s. In place of the faculty's pictures I have repeated the face of Jerry Sandusky. He is known for being the former assistant coach at Penn State football and for having been charged with the rape of a minor. This minor is also a male. The backlash from his arrest was huge and received the full gaze of the American media. Paintings depicting rape have a historical precedent, in which I played upon, as in the Rape of Europa and Rape of the Sabine Women. I have taken influences from Pop art as well, mainly Warhol's work. The brown and yellow color choice is for excrement and urine. The pink color represents the youthful victim. The piece on the whole is a comment on the lack of education Americans are receiving or even seem to want to acquire. Knowledge is becoming less and less of a virtue in a culture dominated by criminal Basketballers, vapid heiresses, and acerbic pundits.
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