Diptych : each panel 36" x 48"

Homegrown Terror

This painting was inspired by a 2016 Nicholas Kristof column in the NYT. A white supremacist, riding on a commuter train in Portland, Oregon,, began shouting anti-Muslim insults at a black girl and her 17 year old friend wearing a hijab. Three passengers stepped forward to protect the girls. One was a 23 year old recent graduate working as a consultant. Another was a53 year old Army veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. The third was a 21 year old poet and student. When they intervened, the man who had harassed the girls pulled a knife and slashed the men before fleeing. The veteran died at the scene. A good Samaritan took off her shirt to staunch the bleeding of the graduate; he died soon after arriving at the hospital. The student poet lived; the knife blade miraculously missing his jugular vein.

This painting depicts the hatred and bigotry of the murderer but also the bravery of the three men who stepped forward on the train. Side by side with the worst of humanity, you find the best.

In a later article it was reported that in the chaotic moments after the stabbings, another man entered the train and stole the dying veteran's wedding ring and backpack.