{"id":45471,"date":"2020-09-16T21:12:45","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T01:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=45471"},"modified":"2020-09-16T21:12:45","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T01:12:45","slug":"what-wendy-wore-art-by-these-pink-lips-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/what-wendy-wore-art-by-these-pink-lips-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"What Wendy Wore: Art by These Pink Lips, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, I asked artist Andrew Lyko<\/a> to paint my old motorcycle jacket so that it would be appropriate for cold-weather protesting. I requested a tribute to Never Again Action<\/a>, a grass-roots collaboration between Jewish and immigrant-rights activists that started protesting U.S. concentration camps last summer<\/a>. I wear the jacket to other protests too, so the jacket made its first appearance on this blog in February, after I was arrested in the Capitol rotunda — with nine new friends-for-life — during a last-minute protest against the Republican-dominated Senate’s acquittal of Donald Trump following his impeachment by the House of Representatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo of Andrew Lyko painting taken after I was sprung from D.C. jail. Click to see the jacket before-and-after its customization.<\/p><\/div><\/center><\/p>\n

The Senate had days earlier voted down by a 51-49 margin a move to call witnesses and subpoena documents required for a proper trial<\/a> — because the only way Republicans could acquit the guy was by refusing to examine any evidence — so we knew how the final vote on February 5 would go even as we sat down on the rotunda floor. Still, I have no regrets about the protest. It would have been more painful to know I hadn’t made my best effort to send a message, even if I couldn’t change the outcome. Any single protest, like any single election, is not a cure-all for what ails society. There’s a cumulative effect and I want to play my part. Like I keep saying<\/a>, if I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down fighting! <\/p>\n

Anyway, that’s all a long prelude to the fact that my custom-painted Never Again Action<\/a> jacket came to function like a security blanket and, before the winter of the impeachment turned into the spring of the quarantine, I wanted an outerwear option for warmer weather. Andrew was busy and I’m definitely not a painter myself, but it just so happens that I’ve long stalked the Instagram account of artist Iris Barbee Bonner<\/a>, who goes by the name These Pink Lips<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/path><\/g><\/g><\/g><\/svg><\/div>\n
\n
View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

A post shared by IRIS BARBEE BONNER (@thesepinklips)<\/a> on