«nosreffeJ samohT»

Thomas Jefferson died on 4 July 1826, exactly fifty years after the Declaration of Independence he drafted was adopted. He died deep in debt, and Monticello was sold in 1831. The man who wrote about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness could not balance his own books. That is where my thomas jefferson pop art starts.

I titled the painting nosreffeJ samohT, his name spelled backwards, as if he were being read from the other side of a mirror.

He stands as a clown. White face paint, a red nose, a wig of thick rainbow-coloured paint, a wide ruffled collar over a jacket of dots and stripes. In one hand he holds a roll of paper, and a long strip covered in tiny lettering unrolls diagonally across his body. His face is cut into strips that slide sideways, and white paint runs down from the chin like smudged make-up. Behind him the canvas is mustard gold with raised, rope-like lines, crossed by black price curves labelled BTC, Brent, CNY and ETH.

Jefferson is still in your pocket, on the two-dollar bill and the nickel. Warhol filled a canvas with 200 one-dollar bills in 1962 and made money look like a product on a shelf. I wanted to put a founding father in a clown suit in front of live markets, where value goes up and down and the face on the note stays solemn. As thomas jefferson pop art goes, it is more joke than portrait. The small blocks of red, yellow and blue are my nod to Mondrian.

It is an original pop art painting in oil and acrylic on canvas, 120x90 cm, and it works as statement wall art.

Most of my original paintings are already in private collections, but I paint originals to order in any size. To ask about this one, message me on Instagram or by email. A hand-finished lithograph of this work also exists, and you can order it through Instagram or email.