Before the election I started to see more and more young people at Trump Rallies. Some from the Rust Belt, others from the South and Southwest, they seem to be in the contemplating a dim future, stolen by unknown forces  and seeking retribution. Having just been to Italy where I had seen many Renaissance Portraits, some famous others obscure, I became interested in doing portraits. I collected many images of young people, isolated them and painted them to suggest different stylistic approaches, some linear and others painterly. Of course my hope was that Trump would not be elected but he was and I believe these “saints” hold a key to why, despite loosing the popular vote, he won an electoral victory by small margins in the industrial Midwest.

Trumpies: Saints: No. 1 through 4, 2016