A terrible person in the public eye can become so cartoonishly awful that further piling on feels gratuitous, because the point has already been hammered home so many times before. In the case of racist killer George Zimmerman, it feels as though that level should have been reached – except that it hasn’t. A verbal jab at Zimmerman is not uncharitable or unsportsmanlike, because although he should be down, out, bloodied, his nose broken, his limbs in leg irons, he isn’t. He’s now something of a legitimate folk hero, actually growing in esteem. No matter how many jeers he gets, no matter how publicly messy his personal life gets, and no matter how he validates one’s suspicions about his motives in shooting Trayvon Martin, there always seems to be an upward-pointing green arrow next to his name.
And now he’s an artist, apparently one in his Blue Period. Zimmerman has painted and put up for auction a rippling cerulean American flag with the text “ONE NATION with LIBERTY and JUSTICE FOR ALL” literally underneath the word “GOD,” a patriotic display that quickly accrued 100 bids on eBay, where it seems to have crashed into a six-figure ceiling after a furious bidding war. It’s stuck at around $100,099.99.
As a stand-alone work, it’s not good but it’s not especially bad. It’s kitsch for sure, although a bland strain, like the accompanying graphic for a right-wing organization’s fundraising drive to keep “activist judges” off the Supreme Court. And in fact, that’s almost what it is – a vehicle for donations to a conservative cause, as Zimmerman has a lot of legal bills.
Comparisons with George W. Bush’s paintings are inevitable, but wrong. First, Bush wasn’t actively seeking attention; the images were hacked out of personal emails. Second, while efforts to humanize a failed leader smack of cynicism, almost all post-presidential reputations soften over time and Bush’s gracious evasion of the limelight (tacit support for the conversion of the Jews notwithstanding) already began that process. And Bush’s paintings are both apolitical and actually kind of fascinating, however stupefying that still sounds. Aesthetically, Zimmerman’s painting is banal, worthy of note only because of the signature in the bottom left. In a tragicomic, post-irony kind of way, it along with the resulting outrage constitute a single piece of mixed-media performance art. Having already defeated sincerity in the form of the belief that justice wins the day, George Zimmerman has, intentionally or not, out-ironized everybody. The art world may not touch him but it certainly seems like someone is whispering in his ear.
There really isn’t a proper category for a person like George Zimmerman. In a way, he should have beat Pope Francis as Person of the Year. Such a move would’ve gotten Time accused of naked click-baiting, but objectively speaking, George Zimmerman embodies a whole slew of cultural trends that are particularly current. He’s the picture of a judicial system gone wrong, the face of an out-of-control gun culture, and an example of the polarization of the political media. Not only does he paint, but he knew how to pull the levers to go viral. And arguably, he’s helped cement the status of Florida as the national thermostat – although he’s allegedly moving out of state. Partly because it would seem like an inverted coronation, and partly because it would feed into the abhorrent “real victim” narrative, there is no actual way to distill our collective disgust for him. He will always be able to leverage his celebrity.
It’s curious what might happen after the final bid is in. Probably some rich white guy with lots of grievances about how the world doesn’t go his way anymore will take down a Christmas tree decked with anti-liberal ornaments, and make room on the wall for a spanking new acquisition. But that won’t be the end. Zimmerman won’t go the Sarah Palin route, with a TV show or a speaking tour, because he has no apparent aptitude for those things and, as his brother said after the verdict, he’ll be “looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life.” Painting suits a semi-recluse. George Zimmerman not only got away with it but can make a tidy living off of having gotten away with it for some time. A terrible person won, again.
Image of Zimmerman's painting via eBay