Faces of the Republican Party is the latest series of images within my Chamomile Tea Party poster project. Americans have lost confidence in our institutions. These portraits document Americans, from national and state politicians, media personalities, lawyers, and citizens who’ve supported former President Trump’s “Big Lie” that he won reelection in 2020. As of August 2023, Trump has been indicted on ninety-one felony charges in four cases, alleging that he and others attempted to overturn the results illegally.
Faces of the Republican Party is not a partisan body of work. The people depicted in these images are the partisans. Instead, these images present a visual history of the clash between our history of democratic governance—We the People—and the threat of authoritarianism. This work is a mix of artistic expression and documentary. I tie each person’s likeness to their contributions to our dysfunctional state of political discourse. The text under each portrait conveys a factual example of how these people have added to our country’s discord.
As someone recently told me, Washington, DC is the angriest city in which he’s lived. People come here from all over the country to air their grievances—to be angry. And these images reflect that. By contrast, the actual prints are beautiful, even painterly. This dichotomy mirrors the country we’re living in: the difference between the ideals of American Exceptionalism and the reality of our tumultuous experiences.
View all the portraits in Faces of the Republican Party.