Pittsburgh-area artist Mary Mazziotti uses her art to point out the dangers to American Democracy Trump represents amid his “firehose of misdirection, misinformation, and straight-out lies drowning out any possibility of reason and progress.”
Mary Mazziotti has been using her art to take on Trump’s criminality and undemocratic tendencies for more than eight years.
Her first work sought to illustrate how the ghosts of repressive dictators past were informing and inspiring the newly elected gameshow host-turned-political force.
At the time, Mazziotti said she even considered the work a little hyperbolic regarding the potential dangers American Democracy faced.
“I mean, it could never get that bad!” she recalled thinking at the time.
Faced with the illiberal extremes Trump is scheming, Mazziotti isn’t pulling any punches with her art, despite the promise by Trump and his MAGA minions that they will go after anyone deemed insufficiently loyal.
Now, let’s hear more from Mary:
When Donald Trump was first elected [in 2016], I was shocked, dismayed, and appalled, like so many other artists. But, hey, I thought, at least there would be grown-ups in the room and plenty of guardrails, right?
In response, I did a series called “Needling the Regime.” It combined images from the World Wars and Fascist, Nazi, and Communist propaganda with text from Trump and his minions. How well they fit together was disturbing.
I meant the series to draw attention to the Trump regime’s goals. But they also had a whiff of the absurd about them.
I mean, it could never get that bad! We have a Constitution and a Supreme Court, and a Bicameral Congress! Not everyone in D.C. can be a lunatic!
Cue November 2024…
Now, I just want to pull the covers up over my head. No more politics for me, thanks. Maybe I’ll just paint pretty pictures of flowers and little kitties.
Who needs my feeble voice wailing in the wind? Today, I’d be afraid to show the pieces from “Needling the Regime” for the fear that some knuckleheaded Proud Boy would take it as a call to action from Fearless Leader to smash up the local newspaper office.
Journalist Miriam Elder recently wrote a piece in The New York Times about how Russians deflated and turned inward when Putin made himself dictator for life.
Instead of waging a constant fight against an overwhelming force, it seemed much more comforting to just spruce up the dacha and pickle more mushrooms.
Elder called it “internal exile,” and it feels like that’s happening here as well. But here’s her warning; “You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you. A new approach is necessary if America is to avoid the fate that befell so many Russians.”
I know I’ll have to continue to make art about the state of our country under Trump’s second regime. I’d be too ashamed not to. And I’ll hope for a little twinge of satisfaction if I feel I’ve jabbed Big Brother.
Now my problem is not what but how? My typical series are often densely hand-embroidered and take many hours to produce. I’d like my political pieces to have a more immediate feel. To project strength and support. One possibility is to make large black felt banners with applique silhouettes. Another would be to make linocut prints on newsprint, which allows for cheap, quick copies. Political ephemera punches above its weight.
I won’t be quoting Trump and his myrmidons anymore. Instead, I’ll keep track of his regime’s disastrous rollout. Take note as each institution crumbles. Name and Shame the ignorant, inexperienced bootlickers who make America immeasurably worse.
“Alternate Facts” is a piece from 2017 when we were honestly shocked at the falsehoods being fed to us from the White House. Now we’ve got a firehose of misdirection, misinformation, and straight-out lies drowning out any possibility of reason and progress.
“Don’t let them lie to you,” said Alexei Navalny. Time to dig in and fight back with pencil, pen, laptop, or needle.
Mary M. Mazziotti is a self-taught visual artist whose practice includes hand-embroidery on textiles with a special interest in social commentary and memento mori. She has exhibited her work around the world, including NordArt in Germany and the Emily Harvey Gallery in Venice. She is represented by BE Galleries in Pittsburgh.
