July 21, 2005 – The California Republican Party is calling for the removal of a lawyer’s painting that hangs in a café at the California State Department building as part of an art show put together by the café, that state’s attorney general and two arts organizations.
The artwork is a painting of a slightly tattered American Flag in the shape of the United States partially in the toilet. It carries the caption, "T’anks to Mr. Bush."
It was created by Stephen Pearcy, a Berkely lawyer and amateur artist who was at the center of controversy earlier this year over a display at his home depicting a dead soldier with a sign reading, "Bush Lied, I Died," according to newspaper accounts.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that state Republicans are demanding California Attorney General Bill Lockyer remove the painting.
In calling for the painting’s exclusion from the show, State Republican Party spokesperson Karen Hanretty called it "blatantly offensive to people who think that America does not belong in the toilet," the Associated Press reports. Hanretty admitted she had not seen the art she condemned and had first heard of the issue from on a conservative talk radio show.
Pearcy’s latest politically controversial piece is part of a show called "Creative Merger," an installation sponsored by Attorney General Lockyer, the California Arts Council, California Lawyers for Art and the Side Bar Café, the restaurant hosting the exhibit of over 30 pieces of original art.
