Labor Panel 7-9 which depicts Frances Perkins and the artist's parents.
It seems like every day some strange new occurrence is happening with Republican governors these days. As an art teacher I find the latest happenings in Maine to be an insult to history and art. In Maine a call went out to artists to depict the history of labor in the state of Maine for a mural to be put up in the Department of Labor building. Judy Taylor won the commission. She spent a year studying Maine labor history and creating the mural. A fact most people probably don’t really know is that Frances Perkins is the first woman labor secretary. She worked with FDR and many of the programs that we all know about today like Social Security, unemployment insurance, and child labor laws developed under FDR because of Frances pushing for them. Now what does Frances have to do with Maine you ask? She was born in Boston but her family came from Maine and that is where she really felt her home was. The Perkins family has a long history in Maine.
Governor LePage decided that the mural, which depicts the history of labor and working people in Maine, had to go because it just wasn’t business friendly. He had a complaint about the mural and so, it just had to go. Even though the artist was commissioned to do the work and there wasn’t a problem prior to LePage being elected as governor, it had to go! Judy Taylor is the artist. I’ve decided she MUST be a subversive! She must have secretly painted images to create propaganda and to control the minds of the people. It must have been the images she used of her mother and father that put the governor over the top. They were both depicted in the Frances Perkins panel. She must be a SOCIALIST for depicting such a painting. Okay, I’m laughing while I’m writing this. I’m just so surprised that someone with the intellect of Governor LePage is actually running a state. You can see the mural at Judy’s website. See for yourself what has Governor LePage so distraught that he felt the need to CENSOR the artwork. I’m sorry. The word censor might mean he covered certain parts but no, he removed the entire piece. No part of it was worthy of human, visual consumption in the state of Maine. It has been put in storage and maybe it will be put on display somewhere else in Maine or maybe it won’t!
http://www.judytaylorstudio.com/mural1.html
Judy Taylor, the Artist
Here is Judy Taylor’s statement about what has happened in Maine.
Judy Taylor: Statement concerning the Maine Labor Mural March 30, 2011 As the artist who created the mural, people ask me how I feel about what’s
happening and what I would like to see done. Like many of the people of
Maine, I want to see the mural displayed publicly as it was originally
intended. I want people to see it and connect to Maine’s labor history. The
purpose of the mural is historical, the artistic intent to honor. It belongs
to the people of Maine and needs to be accessible to them.
Painting the mural is what I have trained my entire life to do. The theme of
figure and context is what I set out to chronicle in my career as an artist.
In fact, my first painting as a child was of my grandfather on his farm in
Nebraska, in the context of his work and life. I loved seeing my
grandparents work and followed my grandmother all over her farm and rode with
my grandfather as he delivered oil around the state.
I’ve always had a deep curiosity and passion for my family’s history as well
as our nation’s history, so when in 2007 I learned that the Maine Arts
Commissions was requesting submissions for a commissioned piece of artwork
detailing the history of labor in Maine, I immediately entered the
competition.
After a competitive process, I was awarded the commission and commenced upon
a year of research, preparation of archival materials, sketches of stories in
context based on historical fact and painting the panels. I added one
personal piece which was to include my mother and father as I had lost both
of them the previous year. My father is the young Army officer and my mother
the little girl in the Frances Perkins panel. My father served as a Forward
Observer during the Korean War and was awarded a Bronze Star. He was a man
who stood by every word he spoke, every letter he wrote. It was so
heartbreaking to learn that this controversy may have started with an
anonymous letter comparing this mural to a North Korean propaganda poster.
Perhaps we should hang my father’s Bronze Star for his service in Korea in
the now empty reception area of the Maine Department of Labor until the mural
is returned, as a symbol of the importance of remembering our history, and
not shuttering it away.
Robert Reich wrote a great piece on this subject. I encourage you to read it because no matter what Governor LePage does, he cannot erase history!
What has become of our country when art is being censored? Actually, this isn’t the first time art was removed for a controversial reason. Anyone that is a student of the art of Diego Rivera will know about the mural that he created for Nelson Rockefeller.
http://www.diego-rivera.org/rockefellercontroversy.html
Let’s just hope the Detroit Institute of Arts doesn’t decide Rivera’s Detroit Industry murals to be too controversial for the viewing public to see.
A Panel From Detroit Industry
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103337403
It’s a sorry state I see our country in when governors can go wild with legislation to destroy public unions, limit collective bargaining and remove public art. In the preamble for our constitution I don’t remember any mention of dictatorship. It simply says, “We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” It’s “WE THE PEOPLE” and we have a right to determine how we run our government. I think it’s time to start recalling these so called “servants of the people” and get true representation.