MEGHAN O'CONNOR
Casting Fingers, Casting Blame?
(Un)Necessary Duplicates
Trumped 2.0 Portfolio Exchange
Expectations and Examinations, 2016
Portfolio Exchanges
Scum-Licker Installation, 2009
Idea of Home, 2008
Hooked, 2006
More Student Work
Tennessee State Veterans Home
BEYOND DRAWING
The Trumped 2.0 Portfolio Exchange Project
ABSTRACT/ THEME:
In 2017, Richard Peterson, Professor Emeritus of College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA, organized the first "Trumped" portfolio exchange. Peterson invited Lithoholic's Non-Anonymous, a group of artists made up of former students, faculty, and workshop professors to participate.
When asked about the original inspiration for the "Trumped" portfolios Peterson said "I have been sitting in my bathrobe for one year drawing on my I-pad listening to CNN. I know every stupid thing Trump has done, I know he doesn't pay taxes, he grabs women by their pussies, makes fun of the disabled, (has) stated that women with little titties will never be a ten, he thinks all of my Mexican friends are murderers & rapists, (has) demanded an investigation into voter fraud of the exact amount of popular votes won by Hillary Clinton, saying that the undocumented voted & some dead people too…" He recalled, "after Howard Stern said that his daughter Ivanka was hot, Trump replied 'I'd date her.'"
Listening and watching this, in the words of Peterson, the "history-making reality TV presidency show" inspired him to organize both of these portfolio exchanges.
In 2019, the second volume, "Trumped 2.0" was put together, this time Peterson co-organizing with Beauvais Lyons, a Chancellor's Professor from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who printed the title page/ colophon. This second volume has many of the same artists and some new faces. The Trumped 2.0 exchange was mailed to participants the week that it was announced that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the U.S. Presidential and Vice Presidential election.
About the portfolio Lyons notes "This portfolio is remarkable for the diversity of the artists who participated, encompassing three generations with many younger artists of color. In presenting artistic images about what they do not like about the Trump presidency, they are also affirming what the presidency should be." Lyons continues "My own print 'The United States Congress of Trump Impersonators' references the 19th Century French artist Honoré Daumier's famous 1834 lithograph 'The Legislative Belly' to comment on the ways that Trump has created a cult following among many Republicans. I am thankful for my Republican friends who are horrified by what has happened to their political party, and this print is an effort to speak to their concerns."
All prints use lithographic methods and are printed by the artists on 15 x 20 inch archival paper. Click here to learn more about lithography.
You can also click on my process page, which has some images of me working on my lithographs in the studio.
​CURRENT EXHIBITION SCHEDULE:
UT Knoxville Printmaking Showcase Gallery, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
​January 4 - February 25, 2021
Ventura County Arts Council, Ventura, CA
November 4, 2020 - January 8, 2021
Click here for news article.
Gallery FAB, Fine Arts Building, University of Missouri, St. Louis
​November 13 - December 11, 2020
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS:
Artist Printmaker/Photographer Research Collection, Texas Tech University Museum, Lubbock, TX.
Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
Janet Turner Print Museum, California State University, Chico, CA
Jules Heller Print Study Room, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ.
Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, New York Public Library, New York, New York.
SCROLL DOWN FOR IMAGES OF THE PORTFOLIO AND INSTALLATION IMAGES
CLICK HERE FOR​
PARTICIPANTS' biographies, STATEMENTS,
​and websites
CLICK HERE FOR​ COLLECTION OF GIFT RECEIPTS
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