“Consider the Half-Life of Roses,” Jerome Stueart, (11 x 15) watercolor, watercolor pencil, mixed media on paper.
A satyr in a painting stops his play to smell the roses again before they are gone. My mother keeps dried roses in the kitchen window, and I know they still hold a beautiful smell. So much of the rose lingers after the rose dies. Roses have a long, long half-life. They don’t have to stay beautiful to hold a room spellbound. They give joy long after they can hold their blooms up, or keep their petals on. Old Roses are the most underestimated, and therefore give the most joy when we stop for a moment and smell them. “Oh, it’s still there.” Proving that their influence lasts so much longer than their lives. For years and years and years to come.
Hope you take time this week to enjoy everything around you.
“Falling into the Wrong Hands,” Jerome Stueart, 11 x 15, watercolor, mixed media on paper.
Steady now! We have to call our representatives. We have to rally. This incompetent dismantling of our foundations, the very structure that keeps America working, makes me and the rest of the American People ask—wait, no one can stop them at all?
Republicans refuse to go against Trump, except for a small few.
Pressure them with phone calls. Tell them to keep their cold, dead hands off our programs!
Honorable Representative of Ohio’s 10th District, Mike Turner,
I’m urgently writing you a public letter today because we need your help. Republicans have a chance to stave off the worst damage of a Trump, Vance and Musk presidency, but that chance is slimming. With each new cabinet member approved and sworn in, the American people lose more and more safety, security, and any potential to stop the long term consequences of Trump and Musk’s actions.
Right now, most Republicans are allowing Trump and Musk to fleece the American public. Unelected people have all our financial data, our most sensitive data. Through inaction, Republicans are helping to dismantle programs that Americans need to survive. USAID helped American farmers, American people. Now Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act are set to be cut. We need these programs. Millions of elders, families, and disabled people rely on those programs to survive. Right now, Republicans don’t seem to care.
Mike, we need you to stand up against your party leadership. I know, that seems like career d3ath, but there is nothing to gain by holding out till later, or allowing this to happen unchecked— it will all be gone if you and others do not stand up now. Everyone will remember your inaction.
You were the chair on the Intelligence Committee. You protected us then. Protect us now. They booted you off the committee because they wanted to hand the Ukraine and Europe to Russia. Trump is a backdoor President to allow Putin to threaten Europe unchecked.
YOU can stop him.
Be strong. Go against your party right now. Block their votes so their candidates for cabinet positions cannot be approved. If you don’t, there might not be anything to save later. Even if it it upsets your party, please stop what is happening in Washington.
It doesn’t matter if we are Republican or Democrat or Independent, what is happening is affecting the structure of the United States and is dismantling it to allow Trump and Musk to have absolute power. Please step in. Or there may be nothing left in the aftermath, and you will have no power to act.
Folks, Call your Representative or Senator. Mike Turner’s numbers are on this painting. Make them hear you. Let him know you need his support now, or he won’t have yours. We must have someone in there fighting for all of us. And really, if Congress doesn’t stop Trump, it will become ineffective to stop him in the future.
Thank you for your patience as Squarespace releases your payments to me this week so I can fulfill your orders. It has been a long two weeks waiting for this to happen!
As you may remember, on every item in my store there is a note that says that they can’t be shipped until Feb 17th at the earliest. This was because I am a new business with Squarespace and they have a policy to delay transferring funds to new businesses till two weeks after we connect our bank accounts with them. But tomorrow marks 2 weeks and I should be able to access and transfer all the funds to FinerWorks to fulfill your orders.
At that time, you will receive an email telling you when your print has shipped and when you should receive it.
Let me know if there are any problems if you don’t hear something by Friday, Feb 21. I will do my best to answer those!
At the end of January, I found my painting, “The Gulf of Empathy,” going viral, quite by accident. I want to tell you a little about what I learned through going viral — and for what “going viral,” I think, means for the larger moment in time.
After the painting went viral, seen by hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of people around the world, I knew this moment was bigger than me, and the outpouring of love and support I received as an artist was as much a testament to Bishop Budde, speaking truth in the face of malevolent power. Her words that day spoke to millions of people.
Her message was profound — and we need to hear more of this side of Christianity, rather than the hate-filled rhetoric of exclusion, racism, sexism, and violence that seems to be what the evangelical side of Christianity, the ones who get to voice the “Christian response” in the media, offers. The one that’s also been promoted to Trump’s Office of Faith, which will be searching for “anti-Christian bias” in the United States. But whose Christianity, which bias?
The rest of the world — the people I heard from — felt more promising. They are full of empathy and compassion, and I got the emails and responses to prove it. From everywhere.
The world is with you, Bishop Budde, and with those who stand up for the marginalized, the unprotected, and who stand up to tyranny and megalomaniacs and oligarchs. People around the globe understand, on an international diplomacy level, on a war-mongering level, that everyone is in danger with Trump and Elon Musk in power. And they find hope in reminding him, and us, what the role of a leader should be.
This is why, I think, a little painting went viral.
“The Gulf of Empathy,” is an 11 x 15 watercolor and mixed media painting based on how I felt about the real-life moment Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde delivered her sermon at the inauguration. In the painting, I show the Bishop standing with hundreds of people, her arms outstretched to protect them, as Donald Trump, his administration and the billionaires stand on the other side of a great gulf, which I call “the Gulf of Empathy,” a play on the Gulf of Mexico, something he purposefully refuses to acknowledge as well. It is another great gulf that he has trouble bridging.
“At Winter Solstice, You Must Birth Your Own Sun,” Jerome Stueart, (11 x 15) watercolor and mixed media on paper.
Before Christmas, I had the pleasure of joining my partner, Joey, and members of his family and longtime friends out at Wortroot, a forested acreage near the border of TN and VA made up of a collection of barns and houses that were collectively owned since the 70s and housed creative people, including Joey for a while, on a piece of land that is part commune and part nature preserve. The people who gathered at the celebration were all fun, creative people of multiple generations. Families who have known each other because the original set of friends bought the place and raised kids there and came back again and again for celebrations.
Shortest day of the year. Longest night. Winter Solstice BEGINS the Sun’s gradual increase over the rest of the year, making days longer and longer and giving us more sunshine. It’s the birth of a new year. You don’t have to be Pagan to celebrate it. In fact, since it is celebrated about 4 or 5 days before Christmas, you probably already celebrate a version of it. During the Winter Solstice, you “birth the sun” and Christ1ans celebrate the “birth of the Son.” You celebrate around a big evergreen tree, light candles, sing songs, eat food with friends and family.
This was my first time there (though some had met me at Summer Solstice). It was SO nice to be introduced as Joey’s partner. I helped lead a parade of singing, dancing, children with jingle bells on through the house! I got a fantastic chocolate cake recipe (I seem to collect those now!!). I ate delicious food, talked to many fascinating people, and then we spent some good time out at the bonfire.
I looked at this bonfire, where the flying cinders and ash resembled snow, and watched how the warmth of the families and their love for each other were, in many ways, creating this sun. Our LOVE creates (the sun for) our new year. What year are we creating? It doesn’t matter what year someone else in p0wer tries to create–we can fuel Our Sun by standing together and pushing back.
Winter Solstice is not the only time we have bonfires, though, and not the only time we can infuse the Sun with the warmth of our love for each other. Imbolc (FEB 1) just passed, and bonfires are popular then! My former experiences with bonfires were mostly college game night ones! Or campfires. Or Whitehorse’s Burning Away the Winter Blues (in late Feb/early March). Those work too!
I tried to capture in this painting, the love, the playfulness, the way a bonfire can bring us together to watch in fascination, to reflect and meditate on the year, to burn away, perhaps, the dross of the old year— things that disappointed us, ways of believing that no longer seem true, circumstances, bad relationships–all get sacrificed into the fire, in a belief that better things are being built and created through the love we share right now.
That’s the promise of the Longest Night: the light will always come back, the light will always come back. And we can build it back. You and me and a bunch of kids and families and friends on a cold dark night.
_____________________________
I held this painting back from posting it for a month or two because of the LA Fires. But others reminded me that we needed to see the warmth of this moment too–that fire isn’t all destruction.
May the warmth of your love, the love of your chosen families, friends, (who also choose you) keep you warm and safe and hopeful that the Sun we are creating will benefit us ALL.
In our struggles, pr0tests, and resilience, we create a powerful Sun of the People. I believe if we don’t give up, it will push out the darkness, slowly but surely.
The light always comes back; it just doesn’t happen all at once.
If you would like a print or sticker or card with this image, please see the sidebar on this website for REDBUBBLE and ORDER PRINTS, respectively. NOTE: Shipping on prints can’t begin till Feb 17th.
(Later this week, I have a much more provocative image! For now, get cozy and warm. )
The folks at Redbubble have reviewed “The Gulf of Empathy” and have approved it. Here on this site you can make other things with the print.
Part of the proceeds will go to charities that protect and defend LGBTQ and Immigrant communities. There is no wait on shipping for these items, so you will get them faster than the prints over on space. If you wanted t-shirts or mugs or buttons, I have those. See the first comment with the address.
Thank you so much for the love you have given this piece of art. I had no idea it would touch hundreds of thousands of people as it has. I know it reflects the love and appreciation that you feel for Bishop Budde and her sermon during the Inauguration, a sermon about empathy, about love, about mercy, about defending those who need our protection right now–which is quickly becoming EVERYONE.
We all need to be protecting each other right now. I want to help do that in any way I can. So, first I will use this miraculous accident that happened, and I will ALSO call my representatives and make it awkward, and make palm cards and post “know your r1ghts” flyers where I can.
Please pass this to anyone you think would like to know about these. Thank you!
NOTE: Redbubble only has things the Squarespace Site does not have. So if you want PRINTS or SETS of CARDS go to Jerome Stueart Art on Squarespace. If you want the other items you see below: stickers, mugs, totes, pillows— please go to Redbubble
Prints of “The Gulf of Empathy” are now available at my SQUARESPACE store, follow the link below. Spread the news widely wherever you see the painting online. I will too!
Thank you for your patience! And for your immeasurable kindness and loving comments about my work, and for those who have slipped me coffees through ko fi. You are beautiful people.
NOTE: There are only 5 items available at this time— an 8 x 10 or 11 x 14 print of the painting, or packs of 5 x 7 cards—a 10-pack, 25-pack, and 100-pack.
Because of constraints, nothing will be shipped until after February 17th.
After the 17th, things will ship normally as they would anywhere else. There’s just a wait time for the newness. I won’t be able to ship your items until the 17th.
As I mentioned, part of this will go to charities that support or defend the LGBTQ community and the Immigrant (documented and undocumented) Community.
Thank you again for supporting artists.
And thank you again to Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde and her sermon during the Inauguration that prompted this painting. Her bravery is a model for us to speak out, use our platforms and our gifts, and protect others as much as we can.
If you know of places that could use this link—places where you posted the painting before– please let them know. I will do my best to get it everywhere I can too.
PS. If there are glitches in the shopping experience, let me know and I will fix them as fast as I can. I am the only person monitoring this at the moment. Thank you!
Hey friends, and new friends, I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you. Thank you for sharing my work, “The Gulf of Empathy” to all your friends and on your pages and in your groups, all around the world. I am overwhelmed with gratitude at your kindness.
Many of you have asked for prints, and I am doing some due diligence to make sure everything is in place to sell prints. Right now, my image is under review at RedBubble. If and when it is approved, I will let you know.
I wanted first to make sure that a) I reached out to Bishop Budde and ask her thoughts and permission on any likeness of her, and b) that part of the proceeds goes to organizations that help defend LGBTQ and Immigrant communities. The overwhelming popularity of this image should be used to help as many people as possible.
I have been stuck at home the last few days with a bad chest cold, in and out of sleep. The way this painting zoomed around the world caught me a bit off guard, as no one expects to go viral, but if it had to happen, I am very happy that it happened this way.
I know that it’s the power of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s words during the inauguration that is the real power that compels us to share this work. It certainly was the impetus behind me creating the painting and sharing it first with you. At a time when we needed someone to speak out, Bishop Budde was there–and spoke so eloquently and so simply about the need for Mercy and Empathy.
People need reassurance and they need hope that their lives will be protected, their rights upheld, and that they can continue to be who they are without having to hide themselves, or produce documents, or live in fear of being found out, or have their health care, food assistance, or jobs taken away.
Her words were prophetic, as we found out by the end of the day that the most vulnerable people in the country would be targeted with a flurry of executive orders.
It was her speech that went viral that day, that kept playing again and again to drown out each executive order. I hope that keeps happening and we amplify the people who are helping us. There’s a lot of bad in the news these days, but following Mr. Rogers’ advice, I’m “looking for the helpers”. What they are doing are much more important–and we can be inspired daily by the kinds of people who stand up and use their opportunities, platforms, microphones, keyboards, webpages to speak FOR good, to make sure that the Joy is not all taken by those who want to steal it. It is not about hiding our eyes from the bad, but it is about looking for those who are fighting back, and amplifying that instead of amplifying the hateful rhetoric that already has a bunch of platforms. Crowd that out with Kindness and Mercy. I’m going to look for the people helping us.
They want you to be exhausted and sad and defeated and give up.
Keep dancing (as Dan Savage reminded us) and keep creating beautiful things that remind us of what it is to be kind, merciful, generous.
One of the oldest stories in the world is the story of a woman who tells her husband, the ruler of the nation, one story after the next about mercy and kindness, reminding him to be merciful and what it means to be kind and generous, and eventually it has an effect on him and, perhaps, those who read or heard the stories later. Scheherazade did this for One Thousand and One Nights, though, so we have our work cut out for us. Inspire others with your stories and your creations and keep looking and amplifying voices and tactics and plans that successfully protect others. Do what you can where you are to stop hate in its tracks.
We are not defeated. We are “stronger together” (as Dayton, Ohio taught me) and we will push back, and keep our hopes protected.
Thank you again for sharing one queer artist’s work and for amplifying the words of empathy, mercy, compassion around the world.
As a last note: Please help me in giving proper attribution to my work wherever you see it. Some images I’ve seen do not have attribution, or others are taking credit, and some just have my name spelled incorrectly. I know my last name has a funny spelling, but it has an “ear” in it. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to ask if this work is mine, and for those who have helped correct attribution mistakes. Artists deeply appreciate your efforts. We can only grow an audience with our names and our works.
Yours,
Jerome Stueart
PS. I will be answering all your thoughtful letters and messages as fast as I can, thank you. You have been very kind to me. I should be back in good health early next week, I hope!
“The Gulf of Empathy,” (11 x 15) watercolor, mixed media on paper.*
Protect others. Speak Out. Use your art and voice when you can.
Thank you, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, for taking that opportunity to simply ask for mercy. Your words reverberated around the world and spoke to every heart, and especially strengthened mine and others’ hearts in queer communities and queer ally communities.
We pray every heart will hear the call to mercy.
For more about this painting and how and why it was made, read this essay
*due to requests and responses to this image, prints are available through Squarespace/ FinerWorks
space. If you wanted t-shirts or mugs or buttons, I have those. See the first comment with the address.
Bear Witness 