October 30, 2008
“Obama and The New International Perspective”
organized by the Italian Democratic Party (Partito Democratico)
Theatre Ambra Jovinelli. Rome, Italy
Just in time for the last days before election day the buyer, Mr. Francesco D’Alessandris, of my piece in MoveOn/ObeyGiant’s Obama art contest organized more Obama artworks to show in Rome. Many Obama artworks were be hung including work by other MoveOn/Obey finalists KC Willis and Nick Rock, to benefit the Obama election campaign from abroad. Both Nick Rock and I attended the event in person, but time ran out for our scheduled public discussion. The “Obama and The New International Perspective” event at Theatre Ambra Jovinelli was a very large umbrella event to celebrate the Obama campaign abroad. Over 500 attended.

This was also the public debut of the 12-inch tall, polymer clay Barack Obama Art Army action figure. Along with the figure and “grassroots” piece of mine, I ported several other works for the show, mostly made from two different stencils I made (samples below). The first was very simple and made in 2006 to get Obama off the ground, the second I made more recently to do t-shirts and such. To my utterly ecstatic surprise, the Italians are in love with Obama. Not only is it a testament to the intelligent, informed, and progressive nature of Europeans, it’s just another sign that the fractured world-wide perception of the U.S. have changed literally overnight now that Obama is elected.