Ron English's Abraham Lincoln - Barack Obama fusion painting

Artist Ron English, whose billboard liberation antics have been featured on Boing Boing in the past, painted this Abraham Lincoln - Barack Obama fusion portrait. Link

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Takuan

The Party of Bush will live forever
ariadneallan

#22 Antiglobalism – I think you have a good point. No one person is THE solution. There is no magic bullet. We all have a lot of work to do.

As for ethnic independence: There are two Americas and if you pay more attention to the distractions than those who are not like you, it is possible to miss the chasm. I’d recommend “The Abolition of White Democracy” by Joel Olson. I’m not in complete agreement with him, but it was an interesting read.

#28 fullmoonblue – I think you’re absolutely right.
ariadneallan

Regardless of any political statement the artist might or might not have intended, I think he did a good job artistically. Why does there have to be a political statement? I did a great mash-up of one of my co-workers and Einstein and I certainly wasn’t making on his intelligence…

But yes, RyanW is right â€“ it does remind me of Alfred E. Newman
Chocolatey Shatner

Looks like Lincoln was on an episode of Queer Eye for the Dead Guy or something.
Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Avram, #12 — “They’re both lawyers who served in the Illinois State Assembly before being elected to Congress.”

The notable difference being that Lincoln’s single term as a US Congressman (1847-49) was a thoroughgoing failure, so much so that he didn’t run for re-election. Between leaving the US House of Representatives and declaring for the Republican nomination in 1860, his only venture into electoral politics was to get beaten in a bid for the US Senate in 1858. The common rap against Lincoln by his opponents was that he was a lightweight who gave good speeches. And yet he turned out be fairly effective at that Presidenting stuff after all. Go figure.
Anonymous

people….they probably did this to show how far we’ve come as a country. Lincoln practically started the civil rights movement and now we have Barack Obama as president. Or when this painting was done….a chance that Barack Obama could be president. have you ever thought about that?
Antinous

Ross,

You forgot Ike’s uniform.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Kevitivity @34: Oh, that’s right! I hadn’t thought about that in years, but it was the passage of the Civil Rights Act of ’64 that finally broke up the Solid South — just as Lyndon Johnson predicted when he signed the bill into law. Those Wikipedia numbers reflect the Dixiecrats still technically being Democrats, though they’d soon switch to being Republicans.

You’re also right that it doesn’t have much to do with the party Lincoln belonged to — or with Teddy Roosevelt’s Republican party, either.

Agent 86, I’d been reserving the possibility that you picked your user name because you’re into retro TV; but if you remember the old Republican party, you caught that show the first time around.

I remember the old Republican party too. There were things to like about it.
usorwoc

Alfred E. Neuman
Antiglobalism

Obama is like Jesus: all sweet talkin’, no real solutions. We all like to believe in him, either because he’s black (gotta be PC!), or because we simply want an end to the race problem.

Malcolm X had it right from the start: we need ethnic independence. Lincoln would have agreed.
Enochrewt

How about we let Barack Obama actually prove himself commit some deeds in the good of the nation before we compare him to one of the greatest American presidents? Why was this mashup even done?
JSG

Wow, so does this mean that the artist believes that an Obama Presidency would include a lifting of Habeas corpus, or that he will be assassinated?

Lincoln is Lincoln, allow Obama to be his own man.
Maurik

Barack Lincoln, the from the republican democrat union party?
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

AntiGlobalism, either come up with some support for those generalizations, or kiss your vowels goodbye.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

I think it’s the smile lines running from nose to chin that makes people think of Alfred E. Neuman.
Santa’s Knee

Wow, that forehead runs for MILES…
Kevitivity

Actually, the Republicans were overwhelmingly more in favor of the Civil Rights Act of ’64, 80%-20% as opposed to democrats where were 63%-37%. So ya, that Lincoln party. Those numbers are from wikipedia btw. But that really has little to do with the fact that Lincoln was a Republican.
Takuan

ohhh, rightt!
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/Bush-Quotes-ngin.jpg
Takuan

http://www.leconcombre.com/concpost/us/postcard4/alfred_e_neuman.jpg
fullmoonblue

I’m thinking this portrait might be trying to say more about its viewing audience than about either Lincoln or Obama…
scottfree

bow tie: ure doing it wrong!
Ryan Waddell

Am I the only one who thinks this looks a LOT like Alfred E. Newman?
Agent 86

This Republican party is nothing like the old Republican party. I wish they would change party names when they change ideals, but party loyalty buys more votes than sincerity.
Anonymous

Rossindetroit wrote:
“Conservatism meant actually conserving what was valuable”

WOW! That’s the Republican Party my black grandmother stood up for. She’d definitely turn in her grave now. All I saw was snarky, eye rollin’, racist leaning stuff going on.

Back to this artist’s rendition of Obama/Lincoln: For those who live on the surface: It’s art folks. His interpretation. You don’t have to like it. And for those who see a deeper understanding other than what only the naked eye can see? ‘Nuff said.
Ray DelMundo

I freed myself!
the boy

well, I like it. Though I think a Fredrick Douglass/Obama mashup would be better.
Takuan

@5
I wouldn’t worry about that
Anonymous

on the comment below. Cannot agree more!
*
“Back to this artist’s rendition of Obama/Lincoln: For those who live on the surface: It’s art folks. His interpretation. You don’t have to like it. And for those who see a deeper understanding other than what only the naked eye can see? ‘Nuff said.”
Bonnie

ya know, I’ve never been attracted to Abe Lincoln until now.
Santa’s Knee

Related?

http://www.ptgustan.com/may07/exeter2.jpg
Agent 86

I grew up with hippie parents, and a love for the past. All my knowledge is cheap second hand knowledge, but most of it comes from talking to the older generation not from wikipedia et all. Feel free to contribute!
Anonymous

Looks a little like Alfred E Newman.
Kevitivity

What I really miss is the old Democrat party. The Party of JFK. There were things to like about the democrat party.
POLOMOCHE

“Lincoln is Lincoln, allow Obama to be his own man.”

I agree; while I’m a big Obama fan, maybe a little premature to compare him to Lincoln.
bricklayer

I’m getting some weird “uncanny valley”-type brain dissociation from this. Makes me want to puke a little.
Avram

Enochrewt — Obama himself invoked Lincoln in the speech announcing his candidacy last year. They’re both lawyers who served in the Illinois State Assembly before being elected to Congress. And many people think Obama being elected president would be a major milestone in Black American history, like Emancipation.
Kevitivity

Of course, Lincoln was a Republican…
ROSSINDETROIT

I miss my party being referred to by its proper name even by people who don’t respect it.
Avram

Oh, and also, Ron English just really likes mashing things up. He’s done a series of paintings of typical Baroque-style scenes, but with the figures wearing Kiss makeup. Marilyn Monroe with Mickey Mouse heads for breasts. All sorts of odd stuff like that.
ROSSINDETROIT

Things to like about the old Republican Party:
1) reluctance to engage in overseas military excursions
2) defending the rights of states for reasons other than isolating discrimination battles where they can be lost one at a time.
3) Conservatism meant actually conserving what was valuable
4) balanced budgets: more than lip service
5) believed in keeping govt. out of personal behavior instead of picking which church was going to oversee us
6) grow government only for very good reasons
7) common sense, a lot of the time.
Enochrewt

#12: Thank you for the explanation, it makes more sense now. I still think from a political point of view it’s putting Obama on a pedestal that he does not deserve, yet at least.
Aloisius

So we expect Obama to spark a civil war with death tolls over half a million?

Hrm. Sounds sort of pessimistic to me.
OM

…I hate to say it, but that fusion makes Ol’ Abe look a bit too effemanite for my tastes. It’s probably all that lip gloss combined with the thick crow’s feet that look more like mascara’d eyelashes.

Coming up next: George Washington fused with Hillary *ND* Slck Wll!
Antinous

Of course, Lincoln was a Republican…

Yes, the Republican Party loves to call itself The Party of Lincoln. Oddly, one doesn’t hear The Party of Nixon nearly so much.
POLOMOCHE

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” – Abraham Lincoln
ROSSINDETROIT

The Party of Lincoln, the one that all politicians who couldn’t tolerate the Civil Rights Act holed up in ‘for a generation’.
That Party of Lincoln?
Brian Carnell

Well, Larry Kramer claimed Lincoln was gay and Obama has said he seeks “spiritual counsel” from a flaming homophobe.