I’ve gotten behind on my website and uploading the most recent images to my gallery / store with all of the surgeries lately. Take a little time and scroll down the page and click on an image you like to view at high resolution.
Newley added Mr Bean gallery images. Click on the link above the images below to see the full resolution images.and downloadable files.
Just finished my latest commission for one of those trump fans… NOT! Just having a little fun continuing the long tradition of Political Satire…
So, there’s one for the Democrats, now a little something for the Republican Party:
Pelosi Zombified
The history of Political Satire
The oldest example of political satire that has survived till today is Aristophanes. In his time satire targeted top politicians, like Cleon, and religion, at the time headed by Zeus. “Satire and derision progressively attacked even the fundamental and most sacred facts of faith,” leading to an increased doubt towards religion by the general population. The Roman period, for example, gives us the satirical poems and epigrams of Martial. Cynic philosophers often engaged in political satire
Satire can be traced back throughout history; wherever organized government, or social categories, has existed, so has satire. Due to lack of political freedom of speech in many ancient civilizations, covert satire is more usual than overt satire in ancient literatures of political liberalism. Historically, the public opinion in the Athenian democracy was remarkably influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters.
Watching or reading satire has since ancient time been considered one of the best ways to understand a culture and a society.
During the 20th and 21st Centuries satire is found in an increasing number of media (in cartoons as political cartoons with heavy caricature and exaggeration, and in political magazines) and the parallel exposure of political scandals to performances (including television shows). Examples include musicians such as Tom Lehrer, live performance groups like the Capitol Steps and the Montana Logging and Ballet Co., and public television and live performer Mark Russell. Additional sub-genres include such literary classics as Gulliver’s Travels and Animal Farm, and more recently, internet Ezine and website sources such as The Onion.
Thanks for stopping by. Much more to come very soon!
Ok, so I was searching something on the internet a few days ago and came across the term impeachment and to my surprise, almost all of the google images related to that term were specifically about “Trump Impeachment”. I know I’ll take some serious heat from my Republican friends on this post and suffer a hit to my social following but so be it. I’m not against Trump at all and for the majority of my life, I’ve voted conservative but you have to admit, Donald trump is far out of line and something needs to be done. Is impeachment the answer? I don’t know but he is out of control on many issues. Regardless, I typically try to keep my political and religious views to myself, even though I do make posts with political content but this time I had to say how I feel about this man running our country. I would hope he could find it within himself to turn things around but I and many others including his own Republican Senators have either serious doubts or have lost hope. I know there is fake news out there on both sides. This is politics and it can get dirty but I try to watch both conservative and liberal news and my deduction after looking at both sides is that Donald Trump should not be in office. Is he really the best that this nation has to offer for out commander and chief? Is he the man to control our national security? Can I trust my children’s future on his decisions? I wish he was but I’m afraid I can’t. Feel free to post your views on this subject.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed. Have a great day!!
I’ve entitled this post “Politically Incorrect” for good reason. Last week, I made a post here and across social media of the latest caricature illustration of current events. The last image was called Dr Trumpenstein, as he was depicted as a mad scientist with the head of Jeff Sessions in a jar. We all know that Jeff Sessions has been stirring up a little stink as of late and of course, Trump has been in the news every day with something new and outrageous. This is pretty typical of our political system today as it has been for many generations here in the US as well as every other nation in the world. Overall, the image received overwhelming positive reviews but there were a few people who took offense or had something negative to say about it. Even a couple of people who unfollowed me on facebook and I’m sure some other social media platforms. I wasn’t the first to create an image specifically called Dr Trumpenstein. Simply Google the search term “Dr Trumpenstein” or search twitter with the hashtag “#trumpenstein” and you’ll see there were many before me.
The reason for this post is to make a couple of points about the matter. I am not against President Donald Trump or any other politician for that matter. Political cartoons and satire have been around since before this nation was founded and will continue to be for all time, or as long as our nation remains free. When I create political images, it’s not because of any political agenda. It has nothing at all to do with political party, race, gender, or nationality. They are just for fun. It’s the way things have always been and they always will be. If you look closely at the images provided above, you’ll see what I mean. There are a wide range of images here (and these are only a few I’ve done over the years) depicting black, white, male, female, Republican, Democrat, US citizens, foreign rulers and even Mr Bean posing as President George Washington. Many of these images date back several years when I was doing Photoshop contest work for a site that sadly has closed it’s doors called “Freaking News“. It was a Photoshop contest website based on current news events with a freaky and funny twist. This is where I got my start in Photo manipulation, caricatures and political satire starting in 2010. I had a lot of fun in those days and met some great artists along the way, many of which will respond to this post as they understand what these images are all about.
Note: There are several images depicted above of former President Barack Obama. There is good reason for this. I have nothing against Obama, or any other politician for that matter. The reason that Obama is featured in many or my images is that he was the most visible figure on the planet for much of the time I’ve been working in Photoshop, just as President Donald Trump is now. So, it doest matter what party they’re from, their race, gender, nationality etc. It’s political satire / cartoons. They are simply meant to be absurd so I appreciate the comments both positive and negative. I guess I accomplished what I set out to do if a few peoples’ feathers were ruffled. Just know that I have no prejudice when creating these images and they will continue as long as I have the freedom we have as a nation to do so. Expect more in the future no matter who is in office. I hope you understand. Those who do are welcome to check out my online store at https://www.RodneyPikeArt.com/Store and help yourself to these fun and absurd images.
As always, thanks for stopping by and if you have any questions, commission inquiries or feedback, feel free to contact me at RodneyWPike@gmail.com.
This is an old image I created in Photoshop years ago for a Photoshop contest called “Freak Show”. I was never happy with it so I decided to revisit it and have a little fun by adding some current figures. I think every town / city has their own creepy old guy TV show who hosts horror movies… Trump kind of reminds me of those guys so here you have it, Dr Trumenstein and Jeff (lost his head) Sessions. Also, Freak Show just seems appropriate for out political system today, don’t you think? If you’re interested in seeing this image in high resolution or purchasing it, please visit my store. There are over 300 images in the store that can be purchased as well as dozens of FREE downloads. As always, thanks for stopping by and feel free to contact me via my contact form if you have any commission inquiries.
