Photo by Jennifer Ring
John Gascot's first piece of 2024-election inspired artwork is a positive portrait of a smiling Kamala Harris.
In his most recent Trump portrait, “South of the Border,” Gascot turned the former president into the star of a donkey show. “He’s surrounded by strippers and Mexicans wearing Hillary shirts,” Gascot said in his description of the work.
His first piece of 2024-election inspired artwork is a positive portrait of a smiling Kamala Harris. Could it be part of a new, positive trend for Gascot?
“I’m sure there’s going to be some scathing ones,” Gascot told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “Because you can’t shut me up. I’m just too stubborn. I’m not going to be intimidated.”
Gascot told CL that his “Diversity in Democracy” mural was vandalized over the summer. The mural, funded by the League of Women Voters, features American voters of all shapes, sizes, genders, and colors standing in St. Petersburg’s Waterfront Museum District. In the purple archway, where visitors stand under an “I Vote” speech bubble, someone graffitied the words, “Fuck Elections. Revolt Now,” in all caps.
But Gascot has no plans to stop painting about the issues that matter to him.
“There’s a lot of issues that I’m happy to paint about,” he said. So many issues that at first, Gascot considered doing a solo show. Then he decided to go bigger.
One day, Gascot and his business partner, Laurie Elmer, were discussing how extremists are claiming ownership of red, white, and blue, the flag, and all the classic American symbols.
“And it’s like, ‘No.’ It belongs to us, too,” added Gascot. By “us,” he means progressives, artists and LGBTQIA+ individuals and allies.
“Just because you hang a flag on your lawn doesn’t make you a patriot to me,” Gascot told CL. “There are many people out there who have no flags, but they’re out in the community doing work. That’s what being a good American and a patriotic American is. It’s not just waving a flag and telling people what they can and cannot do with their bodies…For me, being a patriotic American is being active in your community and caring about others and actually doing something.”
This weekend in Pinellas Park, Gascot invites Tampa Bay area artists to reclaim patriotism in “Red, White, and Free,” at The Gallery@5663.
The goal, according to the call for art, is “to foster a deeper understanding of patriotism that goes beyond nationalism or unquestioning loyalty, emphasizing themes of inclusivity, social justice, and critical engagement with history and society.”
Gascot looks forward to seeing what Tampa Bay artists create in response to this timely prompt.
“I hope that, for the artists, it will give them an opportunity to get some weight off their shoulders,” said Gascot, who assumes that most of the artists who participate will be relatively progressive people. However, everyone (and he means everyone) is welcome to submit.
“And I think it will give [participating artists] a platform to speak out on one, or many, subjects that they care about,” Gascot continued.
For the community, Gascot hopes that “Red, White & Free” will create a conversation and inspire folks to vote.
“I see people putting out this message that voting is an illusion, and in my opinion, you don’t get to sit out the process,” says Gascot, “It happens whether you participate or not.”
There's no cover for John Gascot’s “Red, White, & Free: Reclaiming Patriotism” show at The Gallery@5663 in Pinellas Park on Saturday, Oct. 5.
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