john-paull davidson home
about whatever

I own a trade show exhibit company specializing in the design and fabrication of eco friendly trade show exhibits. While I love my work, I needed an artistic outlet, and was inspired outside that world by Barack Obama. The guy is money - he's smooth. He's got style and he's smart. He's exactly what our country needs. He's everything Bush is not, everything our country should be. He's progressive and has the charisma to lead us to what Stevie Wonder calls a higher ground.

Yes, as the media ham handedly tells us he's African American; but he's also half White American. Look deeper and you'll learn he lived in Hawaii and Indonesia, which immersed him in Pan-Asian culture. Plus his dad was a Muslim. What a melting pot this man represents!

My art is true to what I feel and what I am capable of . Nothing more, nothing less. I'm not, nor do I need to make money from the art. I just want to make it and put it out there. What happens, happens. Enough people have bought it or asked questions about it to lead me to make this website. So look, enjoy, buy, whatever. Dig it, hate it, think about it, make fun of it. I'll just put it out there.

There is something absurd about self promotion that seems to be uniquely American. The 2008 political race is an extreme example of this rabid, navel gazing culture we all live in. What kind of overly ambitious, insane and driven person would be so arrogant to plaster their name, values, hair style, habits, family, upbringing, ancestry, race, sexuality in every lawn, household, newspaper, website and magazine in the world?

In Obama, I don't see ambitious, insane or driven in a bad way. To the contrary, I was inspired to create art. He says "We're the one's we've been waiting for..." which is brilliant, echoing Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country...".

I'm both cynical and puppy dog hopeful about this race, and I hope you see in my art that dichotomy. On the one hand, 60's style pop art echoing the Kennedy/MLK era, on the other hand twisting it all up and spitting it out and mocking it psychadelic style.

As skeptical and cynical as I am, I'm clearly intoxicated by it enough to put my name on the posters I designed, and set up a website. So I guess I'm part of the whole mess!

What could be more American than to package up and sell hope?

------------

For eco friendly, sustainable, green trade show booths and displays, go to www.boothster.com