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Unfinished or Undone?

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery is home to a famous painting of George Washington known as The Athenaeum, a portrait by the artist Gilbert Stuart. I used to peek this image regularly through the windows of a municipal building near Downtown Seattle on my route to visit the design district and Seattle’s Mecca of antiques and vintage resale. Eventually, I was curious enough about the unusual and unfinished picture to research its history. Thankfully,  i did this before marching in to the office in an attempt to purchase what I had at first, and hilariously, believed to be a perfect and quirky little unfinished original portrait to add to my collection of weird art. 

As the story goes, Stuart made it a goal to be introduced to George Washington with the intention of painting his portrait to then resell as engravings. His plan worked well and The Athenaeum became the model for many future works and engravings including the image still famously present on the one dollar bill.  

In this November of discussion, discontent and doubling down, I see this distorted image as a reflection of our times.  Although the painting is incomplete, I strangely believe it to be a true to life reflection of a man I’ve never met, who has had a hand in forming the societal rights and privileges I either enjoy or am denied each day, and therefore I feel he exists as a whole piece to the puzzle that is our American History. The image is indistinguishable, incomplete and indelible, a seemingly accurate depiction of a time, a person, and a suite of lasting actions and legislation that continues to impact the daily life of every American.  

When I asked myself why I have no problem allowing a particular history to settle within my own without further inquiry, I recognized a new incoherence in my own everyday logic.  Until recently I would have advocated for voter participation with a familiar refrain, “your vote is your voice,” “the right to vote is a privilege” or something more pointed like “Don’t vote? Don’t complain.” But I realize I have been thinking about voter participation and non participation as two opposite sides of a coin...err...dollar bill. (Sorry, Abe), When, in fact, a person who votes has exactly the same impact as a person who doesn’t vote, and the outcome is impossible to parse by any one person or group.

Regardless of who participates in an popular or electoral vote, we can ignore the realities of voter oppression or disenfranchised groups to focus only on final result of any local, regional or national election, as it reveals the same naked reality for those who are allowed or choose to participate as it reveals to those who are barred from or opt out of the process.

The image of George Washington in The Athenaeum is unfinished, fuzzy, and a touch confusing, but his identity remains clear because the finished product gives us enough information to be a reflection of who he is. And although we see ourselves reflected many different ways each day; close up to our pores in a clear mirror, stretched by sunlight casting a shadow on the ground, memorialized in a billion bad selfies or sweetly reflected in the eye’s of a child, corny as it sounds....we cannot escape who we are, who we become or who we choose to be through a election process that welcomes some and denies others, even as some who can participate don’t, and those who cant, fight to be heard hoping it will change the result.  

But ultimately, the makeup of our government, the outcome of any voting process, delivers the exact same result: a true, if distorted, reflection of who we are as a nation, how we choose to present ourselves as a republic, a blindingly truthful measure of where we are as a country and an honest portrayal of who and what America prioritizes.

You can vote. I hope you do if you are able. You can opt out. You can be blocked from the process against your will. But when the speeches and debates have ended, when the polls are closed and the pundits have lost their audience, we will be left with a clear and unflinching reflection of ourselves. Will we like who we see? Or will we be undone?

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