Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and nothing’s as sour as the bitter disappointment/heartbreak of a true believer who realize he’s been duped. That’s the way I felt after the 2000 election. Then again in 2004. Then again after I learned about what Kennedy (‘s dad) probably did to steal the election from Nixon in ’60 “fair and square.” Let’s not even get into Tilden v. Hayes…. (or the Bushbama bank bailouts, or the proudly  bipartisan state of never-ending war, or all the other corrupt policies perpetuated by both “parties.”)

The laugh is on us.

Anyway, as a kid, for some reason, I started collection presidential campaign buttons. It all started with this one, from a neighbor’s estate sale.

the gateway pin

From that humble beginning (thanks to that insane collector bug that infects so many 12 year old boys), the useless collection grew into the hundreds. I had four boards covered with buttons and pins (like the one shown below), and two more boxes of ’em in storage.

a childish waste of time, money, and belief

As a growns-up man, I sold off most of the ones worth anything, but I still have a metric crap-ton of these things left. Unable to sell the rest, and not quite wanting to simple burn them (though tempted), I’m planning to use them to make some art, but I’m not sure quite what they’ll be. Will the be used like pieces of tesserae, making a mosaic? Probably saying something pithy and tart, while being mesmerizingly detailed to boot? Let’s call this the Fred Tomaselli route (see owl made of pills below).

Pill / drug art by Fred Tomaselli

Or will they be used as the background to large, wordy piece, saying something like Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Follow Leaders, Watch the Parking Meters?” Let’s call this the Pete Tunney method. (see below)

Which of these two? I don’t know yet. Suggestions? (If it’s a “funny” one, it better be daaaaamn funny.)

“Don’t Panic” by Peter Tunney © 2010