Political Satire in Sculpture

Dick Cheney has taken a variety of shots at the Obama administration over the last two weeks. He seems to have concerns regarding the current administration's ability to protect the United States from a terrorist attack. The former vice-president has made his opinion clear that he feels the previous administration was able to protect the American people better than President Obama's team. This constant criticism has political satirists fired up. Cheney is depicted in many political cartoons throughout the country; he is the focus of a variety of comedians, and editors have happily made him their focus of writing. We can expect more from the political funny people in future because Mr. Cheney has made it clear he will continue to give his opinion.

Perhaps a future artist will make a sculpture of the former vice-president as a large dominant figure controlling a small President George W.

Bush puppet. This would take a lot of talent and careful use of many different gloss glazes. The two different figures would require a careful hand to create, and to properly show the separations of the two characters a variety of color patterns would be necessary.

The creation of two sculptures to properly point out a political point of view is not an easy task. Our neighbors to the south in Mexico have had plenty of corrupt, or just bad, politicians in the past. Even though this is true, we do not see a lot of mexican clay pottery being used by Mexican political satirists. The amount of work, time, and talent necessary to make humorous sculptures of real people is enormous, and politicians do not seem to be in office long enough to make the effort.

The artist looking to make a political statement may be able to save some time and effort by incorporating the use of a type of mold. Drape molds could easily help an artist make statement pieces within a sculpture. These "accessory" pieces could help the artist make a statement about a political figure quickly and easily. Thus, the actual sculpture of the politician would not be as important.