Political Winds Detail

“Political Winds” by Mitchel McCoy

Even more important than any work of art is a true understanding of the symbolism contained therein. You may find additional representations that you and others may recognize and I may overlook.

This piece originally began with the idea to build a single horse weathervane made from scrap copper wire. As I began shaping the horse, I was reminded of the fact that most of our political leaders have a knack for blowing a lot of hot air, and there was an opening underneath the tail of the horse that spoke volumes to this thought.

I had also entertained the idea of building a two-story “outhouse.” The “windy horse” and the “two-story outhouse” came together, and thus began the evolution of this piece.

The two-story outhouse, with ordinary citizens restricted to the lower level and our political leaders using the upper level, is an age-old symbol representing how citizens are treated by politicians in general.

The top weathervane is the “cock-of-the-roost,” as many of our politicians seem to consider themselves. “Listen to me, I can crow the loudest and strut with the most flash!” The politician -- I mean the rooster -- shows different colors, depending on which side he wants to show.

The “Pork Barrel Pig” seems to always be around and well-fed. Our politicians tend to like to “stick it to us,” as represented by the pig’s scorpion tail.

The “horse” vane, of course, represents politicians as they rear up and whinny (whine) to attract attention to themselves. Notice he is well-fed and passing a lot of hot air.

All of the vanes are misleading as they represent the direction in which our politicians tell us our country is headed versus the direction that we are actually headed, and do they really know?

None of the vanes can rotate without interfering with or being blocked by the “opposing party.”

The gold mosque dome illustrates the continued misdirection of our national leaders. For five decades in the early 1800s, our Capitol building served as a weekly meeting place for four Christian denominations. (Separation of church and state?)

The castle battlements and the red carpet leading to the golden “throne” are representative of the politicians as they tend to set themselves up as “royalty” with lifetime pensions and health benefits.

The “golden crown” represents the ultimate desire for power.

Don’t forget, the lower outhouse represents you and me. The single new board on the lower outhouse door represents our ‘stimulus funds.’

Whatever happened to a “government of the people, for the people and by the people” ?