Why I'm disappointed with "Contraindication" (Jordan Henderson's latest sociopolitical painting)

I'm disappointed with Jordan Henderson's latest painting. Usually, I'm thrilled with his paintbrush creations (especially the covers he created for my two novels), but "Contraindications" falls short of his usual brilliance.

In it, he depicts a crowd of protesters holding signs with contradicting slogans, such as "My Body My Choice | Get the damn vaccine!" While this does show the muddled and contradictory thinking of the masses, I feel the painting relies too heavily on words, rather than images, to convey its message.

And I'm a wordsmith, so it's not like I have anything against words. But, in some ways I do, because I'm also a novelist (as well as a closet poet). Both poetry and novels focus on using words to conjure up images in the imagination (or the nation of images that Kris Kringle alludes to in Miracle on 34th Street) of the reader. We shy away from using words directly to explain the moral of the story. If we do, it's often only at the end of the tale.

I believe this is why Jordan Henderson's latest painting (which you can view on his Substack) felt less like immortal art and more like a political cartoon that somehow found its way into an art gallery. The contrast is clear when displayed alongside some of his past masterpieces:

• Sanity, Her Son, and the Credulous said so much in one image that it ended up inspiring the creation of two characters, and an entire subplot, in my novel, Much Ado About Corona.

• Brighter Future manages to depict the horror of the vaccine mandates with the hope of the opposition it awakened.

• Victory of Science shows the malevolence of the COVID-19 vaccine clinics in a way that no amount of scientific evidence could ever impart.

People's Choice shows the pointlessness of voting with only four visual elements and one word (which he could have dropped).

• Sheep, Shepherd and a Goat said so much in one image that I produced a one-hour documentary-style video interview with Jordan going over all the elements he packed into that 42 x 68 inch canvas.

So, while I like Jordan's latest thought-provoking social-political painting, I think it lacks the emotional and philosophical impact of the image-based works of art he's done before.

John C.A. Manley

PS I've purchased greeting cards, prints, jigsaw puzzles and even an original, of Jordan's artwork. And I encourage you to do the same through his online store.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.