Tengo un sueño

In response to the current political climate, I've been experimenting with text-based art inspired by Barbara Kruger and Shirin Neshat.

The model Esteban is Mexican-American. I painted a 30 x 40 acrylic portrait of him (above), then digitally added a Spanish translation of an excerpt from Martin Luther King:

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

Tengo un sueño que un día esta nación se pondrá en pie y realizará el verdadero significado de su credo: “Sostenemos que estas verdades son evidentes por sí mismas: que todos los hombres han sido creados iguales”.

The concept of art as a form of protest is completely new to me - unnerving but also empowering. I hope that other artists will be inspired to explore it.