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I’m something of a Casey Jex Smith fan. I’ve interviewed him and his wife (whose work I love, perhaps, even more) and I was desperate that he let Peculiar Pages use his painting Curious Workmanship on the cover of Fire in the Pasture.
I have to admit I’m really not sold on his Dungeons & Dragons work of late (or much of his turn to the ironically lowbrow), but I can’t deny that he seems to know what he’s doing.
Earlier this year he went D&D to comment on current politics (1 and 2), and now he’s getting even more . . . serious.
Tonight, October 10, he’s staging a performance art piece in which a Romney D&D character will square off against an Obama D&D character and the winner will receive Casey’s real, actual, Ohio vote.
The exhibition is in New York City and will run until the day after Election Day. Lots of Mormony stuff in the show, but the battle is tonight only at the opening.
And that’s what I want to hear your opinion on.
A Motley Vision 
Hi Eric, No irony man! I live and breathe this stuff and worship those early D&D illustrators. Thanks for the shout out!
The curator of this NYC exhibit, Brooklyn artist Timothy Hutchings, is putting together a volume containing all the issues of a D&D magazine I published as a teen, called The Oracle. He’s doing a lot to preserve both the spirit and the artifacts of old-school fantasy roleplaying.
Huh? I’m not sure that I’m up with the political message here. So Obama is the Pharaoh and Romney is Moses? Is Casey going “Jon McNaughton” or something? Or am I misinterpreting things?
Of course, I guess some art is meant to be controversial.
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I missed the whole D&D thing (one reason I fail as a proper nerd) and so I have a hard time recognizing the difference between pure homage and ironic homage. But I do know homage when I see it and it’s clear Casey isn’t mocking anything.
To Kent: Since he voted Obama last time and I think is regret-free, I don’t think your interpretation quite fits. Though I do agree that Obama looks a lot more villainy and Romney a lot more heroey.
The Obama-esque head looked odd to me, until I realized:
That’s MICHELLE Obama’s face.
Th., I thought maybe I was misinterpreting it. But it really looks like Romney is supposed to be the hero…
I don’t think Romney with Beau Bridges hairpiece = Hero necessarily, but I get the sinister vibe from Obama.
I remember two guys in my high school German class invited me over to play D&D once.
I turned them down.
The opening last night was really fun. The place was packed for the battle. Casey ran his voice through a processor as a fittingly spooky moderator. The proxies for Obama and Romney wore masks (that I assume will be a Halloween fixture this year). I thought Casey kept saying, “Mitt, Mitt,” with every roll of the dice, but it was actually, “Miss.” He couldn’t catch a break.
The D&D drawing of Romney (my cousin) is especially fun if you look closely. I love his invisible helmut. The show continues for a month.
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Thanks for the report, Glen. I’m happy it was a success.