Sarah Palin Nude with Gun

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Sarah Palin Nude with Gun by Bruce Elliot

CHICAGO.- Bruce Elliott, 68, of Chicago, has unveiled a nude portrait of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in his bar in the North Side of Chicago, the Old Town Ale House. The work is four feet tall and is drawing crowds to the bar. In the portrait, the governor is wearing her trademark hairdo, holding an automatic rifle and standing naked on a polar-bear skin rug.

Bruce Elliott said, “I don’t see how she could be offended by this. I made her into a sex figure.”

Bruce Elliott admits to being a supporter of Senator Barack Obama. He also said that his daughter posed nude for the painting.

He said, “My daughter is a heck of a stand-in for Sarah Palin. She can even do the voice.”

Bruce Elliott further stated, “I’ve been following her (Sarah Palin) religiously. I had never heard of her before, like everyone else. I find her bizarrely fascinating, even though I pretty much despise everything she stands for.

[From Artdaily.org – The First Art Newspaper on the Net]

I actually have mixed views about this. granted that part of my concern is that it’s not actually very good in my opinion. I’ve actually been mulling over that one line Bruce Elliot Said about this piece “I made her into a sex figure.” because nudes are always sexual by definition right? and granted it is a pinup style pose, but it actually irks me because nobody would consider doing the same with a male candidate. It drives me insane that the female candidates have to worry about so much more than politics because apparently it matters more how they look, than what they believe in. a number of people have even mentioned that Palin’s appearance is one of their deciding factors in voting. remember Hilary’s big makeover? it was all over the media. why is appearance so important for female politicians, does it affect their politics? and why is it ok to turn female politicians into “sex figures” but not the males? (note, this opinion is not because this work is a nude of a politician but because of the artists comments about his intent)

anyway, back to the piece, it’s an excellent tactic to draw publicity for yourself by leveraging a hot topic and combining it with controversy. it’s always a good publicity draw, and it’s working wonders for the artist and the the Old Town Ale House but I really wish the actual artwork was better!

4 thoughts on “Sarah Palin Nude with Gun

  1. Does the face even match the body? It’s almost like one of them Photoshop jobs (or scissors and paste), where you put a head on a random body…

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  2. LOL! I agree, although apparently his daughter was a good match. I’d say the discrepancy is because the artist painted sections of the painting at a time, rather than the whole (never a good idea if you want a cohesive piece!)

  3. The painting looks very much like it’d be hidden away in the “embarrassed to hang it” section of a Rotary or Lions club art show. Not because it’s nude, but because it’s not very good. The only remarkable thing about it is it’s subject, and I suppose it’s creator is banking on that.

    Please-oh-please-oh-please don’t let anyone decide to make things fair and balanced by depicting McCain in a nude pin-up pose! Yeesh, what am I talking about? It’s certain to exist somewhere on the internet.

  4. Pingback: Cheap Sensationalism « Overflow

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