Pax Americana

by Carl Anderson

Oil on Collage

I painted this in the weeks following the start of the second Iraqi War. I saved all the Newsweek, Time, and US News and World Report issues for three weeks and used them to compose a collage depicting an American Airforce officer, Iraqi children waving their shoes in an offensive gesture, and an Army soldier and Iraqi citizen standing over a dead child. In the weeks following our invasion I felt astonished and saddened at the sight of our government acting so rashly and un-apologetically causing so much pain and suffering. I call it PAX Americana referring to the rumored report by an American think tank, which laid out plans for an attack on Iraq as a way to gain stronger control in this area of the world.