Twilight Language

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Twilight Language in Andy Thomas' Paintings

There is twilight language in the White House, and I'm not sure President Donald Trump even realized it.

On Sunday, October 14, 2018, President Trump touched on a wide array of topics during his interview with 60 Minutes hosted by CBS reporter Lesley Stahl. Besides all the subjects, what got some attention was the painting on the wall of the White House room where the interview took place.

Donald Trump has placed an Andy Thomas painting of past Republican presidents hanging out with Donald Trump in the Trump White House. As 60 Minutes documented, Thomas’ The Republican Club was there, in the background of the dining room.

Andy Thomas' The Republican Club, with President Trump.

Grand Ol' Gang.

Callin' the Blue.

Thomas' previous Republican paintings.

True Blues - Democratic Presidents

Callin' The Red

Thomas' The Democratic Club (directly above) and other paintings are populated by Democratic Presidents.

But someone else is coming to join them.

Who is that?

Some feel that Andy Thomas painted Senator Kamala Harris in the background (at least for the Democrats).

There’s a shadowy female figure approaching the table, just as there is in his most recent painting of Democratic presidents playing poker, “The Democratic Club.” Thomas explained the symbolism on his website:

“That will be the first Republican female president and the first Democratic female president. … As I was doing the painting, I was thinking that these guys are kind of intimidating in a way. That’s the kind of woman that will be our first woman president; she’ll walk right up to that table."
Kudos to Thomas for sneaking a feminist message into Donald Trump’s Presidential Dining Room. In the past, Frederick Judd Waugh’s Rough Sea at Bailey’s Island, Maine, hung on that wall. (Source.)

Before that, Alvan Fisher’s Indian Guides hung there, above both Obama and Bush:

The classy version has the following as a precursor: Porcelain of Capodimonte: Game Poker. The creation of Bari. Master Volta.

Of course, this entire discussion has recalled other paintings of poker players, as follows.

Dogs Playing Poker, by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, refers collectively to an 1894 painting, a 1903 series of sixteen oil paintings commissioned by Brown & Bigelow to advertise cigars, and a 1910 painting. All eighteen paintings in the overall series feature anthropomorphized dogs, but the eleven in which dogs are seated around a card table have become well known in the United States as examples of kitsch art in home decoration.

Critic Annette Ferrara has described Dogs Playing Poker as "indelibly burned into ... the American collective-schlock subconscious ... through incessant reproduction on all manner of pop ephemera."

The first painting, Coolidge's 1894 Poker Game (above), realized $658,000 at a Sotheby's New York sale on November 18, 2015.

Poker or pool with dogs paintings are linked to the Andy Thomas paintings of politicians playing poker or pool.

The female approaching motif shows that soon this will change the whole male club atmosphere.

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Postscript

I mentioned on Facebook that it seems to not be a coincidence that Andy Thomas shows Abraham Lincoln seated, in two of his three paintings, from the back, from the position known during Lincoln's assassination. This position matches what we find in several paintings of the Lincoln murder at Ford's Theater.

From John Wilkes "Booth's point of view," notes artist Jeffrey Vallance. Vallance also posted the following composite image using Thomas' Lincoln view.

The Big Betrayal by Jack T. Chick. This is a 64-page graphic comic book expanding on the theory that the Jesuits were behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Vallance posted the cover of the Chick book next to the image of Lincoln from the Andy Thomas painting. Makes sense.

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Andy Thomas is a well-known artist of Western scenes.

American Storytellers shows Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Ronald Reagan, Charles Russell, Frederic Remington, Norman Rockwell, Ben Franklin, Ernest Hemingway, Buffalo Bill, and Teddy Roosevelt.

Fight at the Watering Hole.

Wild Bill's Last Deal.

Cowboy Baseball.

Andy Thomas Fine Art for Sale site.

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Let the memes begin...

See the hidden figure added by "USMC Liberal"?

A comment by the progressive Lincoln to what Carlos Rodriguez sees as the others, all repressives.

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Prestige Limo Crash: #HolyHex

What does it mean?

The Hex sign on the side of the Apple Barrel Country Store in Schoharie County, New York, towards which the limousine was heading, when it shot to the right and crashed.

"Schoharie" comes from a Mohawk word meaning "floating driftwood."

A prominent site in the Schoharie County is the Old Stone Fort, used for defense against British and allied Indian attacks during the Revolution. It was later used as an armory during the Civil War. In August 2010, the series Ghost Hunters filmed an episode about the Old Stone Fort; it aired December 8, 2010.

The large territory of the county (much of upstate and western New York) was long occupied by the Mohawk Indians and, to the west, the other four tribes of the Iroquois League (increased to six with the migration of the Tuscarora from the South to New York in 1722). After European colonization of the Northeast started, the Mohawk had a lucrative fur trade with the French coming down from Canada, as well as the early Dutch colonists, and later British and German colonists.

Some Palatine Germans, who worked in camps on the Hudson to pay off their passage in 1710, later settled in this county in the 1720s and 1730s.

"The Apple Barrel was built in the 1940s as an outlet for Edwin and Helen Vedder’s orchard on Terrace Mountain. Willis and Ruth Vedder Truax bought the outlet in 1965 and named it Apple Barrel. They sold seasonal produce, including apples, peaches, potatoes and maple products." From Images of America: The Schoharie Valley by John P.D. Wilkinson.

The Loden family purchased the Apple Barrel in January 1983 after owning the Corner Store in Gallupville, NY. Since 1983, the Lodens have made several expansions to the business including additions for more retail space and the tremendously popular Apple Barrel Cafe. Source.

Most people associate the Amish with Hex signs. The truth be told, Hex signs are not representative of either Amish art nor Mennonite traditions. In fact, neither communities place the signs on their barns or other property.
Actually, Lutherans who came to Pennsylvania at the invitation of William Penn introduced these artistic signs to the area. These early Pennsylvania German settlers placed these images on birth certificates, furniture, textiles, and so forth. Source.

Prestige Limousines, also known as Hasy Limousines and Saratoga Luxury Limousines, is the company whose modified 2001 Ford Excursion plowed into the parking lot of The Apple Barrel country store in Schoharie, New York, on Saturday, October 6, 2018.

All 17 passengers who were in the vehicle on their way to a 30th birthday party died as did the driver Scott Lisinicchia, 53, and two pedestrians who were hit in the parking lot.
Over at The Kitchen Sync, commentator Anita Ladaprarez, speaking of the limo crash, makes this observation: "What's going on now is so mind-blowingly complex and ornate and far-ranging that it takes considerable time to digest and research. The details and notes mount and one doesn't wish to leave out anything compelling."

One of the names of the “death-ridden” limo company is Prestige, which is code for magic, illusion, and wealth.

David Bowie portrayed Tesla in the movie The Prestige (2006), in which one of the main characters gets Tesla to develop a remarkable electro-replicating device for him.
Wardenclyffe Tower (1901–1917), also known as the Tesla Tower, was an early experimental wireless transmission station designed and built by Nikola Tesla in Shoreham, New York in 1901–1902.

Let us stroll down this path.