This painting was a part of Brooks’ solo show ‘We The People’ in Washington, DC in 2010. The artist writes that “There are two paths converging – the path in the foreground represents the Democratic Party (the white horse and rainbow colored wagon with the diverse crew around it). The Republican Party is represented by the parade in the back with the elephant, the militaristic-looking characters, and the king and queen. There’s a small clown being crushed by the elephant in there… there are two missiles coming in about to blow everything up. There’s also a rat with a bomb on his back. In the carriage there is a Jesus baby and a devil baby (who is peeing on the dogs).” There is a lot going on.
Scott writes that back in 2010 there was the sense that the two parties were converging, but it no longer looks that way. In the painting he isn’t trying to frame one party as good and the other evil, but there are little clues that a struggle is happening between opposing forces. For example, the Democratic Party carriage has an angelic and a devilish baby.
