The Fortunate Must Not Be Restrained

The full quote that this painting takes its title from is, “Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.” Bertrand Russel wrote this in 1935, making a case for socialism and against the ills of capitalism. I made the painting for the cover of a literary magazine in Vermont, Mount Island, which focuses primarily on LGBQ issues, but I was obviously riffing on the attraction/repulsion of capitalism when I made and titled this piece. Absurdism and making cheeky the issues of incredible importance is a strange and wonderful, often complicated, and sometimes verging on/blowing past an appropriate thing to do, huh?