Jon McNaughton: An Interview

The following are excerpts taken from an interview with Jon McNaughton.

On the switch from landscapes to political paintings

It was a gradual change. I’ve always liked to paint the figure and I had an inclination to move toward religious art — not that I thought there was any money in it,  but I was making a good living with the landscapes and I thought, “I want to paint some spiritual-type work.”

So I started doing [spiritual paintings] and I really enjoyed [them]. Then, starting in 2008 during the election, that’s when I first got the idea for the “One Nation Under God” thing. That painting came to me like a bolt of lightning: I knew who was going to be in the picture. I thought, this is going to be the most politically incorrect painting I’ve ever done, but I painted it anyways.

"One Nation Under God" by Jon McNaughton. Used with permission.

In 2010 they passed the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act. I resented that Obama pushed that through even though most Americans didn’t want it, and I felt inside it was unconstitutional because it goes against everything we believe in terms of limited government. Even now half the states are filing suits against the federal government, and that’s never happened before. The painting I felt strongly would represent not just my feelings, but others’.

Being at the center of controversy

Well, I’m not trying to join a movement. I’m just one guy who has an opinion about what’s happening, and as an artist you express that through your work, and I use my paintings as a way to communicate.

For several months nothing happened. A lot of people came into the gallery and said “Oh, that’s interesting.”  Then, all of a sudden, a couple of BYU students who were a little more on the liberal side starting poking fun at the painting on one of their blogs and that got picked up by the Huffiington Post and that went all over the country.

Suddenly I had enemies who hated me and I never — I mean, I was just a landscape painter — and that just caused the floodgates to open, and those who agreed with this sentiment saw it and just loved it, so it switched back to this other direction. Like a tsunami I had all of this support.  So that was the first experience. I started selling it at the BYU bookstore, and for a year and half it was their best-seller, according to their manager.

You know, it was weird when [public criticism] first happened with the “One Nation Under God” when it got onto the Huffington Post. I never experienced anything like that before. It was like standing in a stadium in your underwear and everyone’s staring at you and making fun of you. It was really unnerving – really. But after a week of that I got used to it and now it doesn’t even bother me.

You know I think BYU has a lot of different opinions about what I do – it’s a mixed batch. I’m not surprised BYU has a lot of conservatives, more than others, but you’re still going to have a lot of the liberal side and they really hate my paintings. And that’s okay. I’m not a militant right-winger. I like to talk to people with different opinions. They come into the gallery all the time and I talk with them. I don’t like to argue and yell at people. Some people are like that. Some people, because my paintings are so full of emotion, think that I must be a real angry person and I’m not. I’m just using [my paintings] to express my views on politics and what’s happening in our country.

As far as the Internet, someone says something to someone at the right time and it goes viral you have no control over it.

[Positive versus negative opinions] are hard to measure because around here there are a lot more conservatives. Around the country, I feel it’s more equally divided. On the Internet you’ll see everything from “This is the most horrible guy who’s ever lived,” and others “Praise the Lord someone actually painted this.” It’s interesting from an LDS perspective in that I get a certain percentage that’s really upset about the pictures, although I think most members of the Church support ["One Nation Under God"].

I’ve gotten a lot of calls from senators and congressmen who support what I’m doing.

His time at BYU

I started in ‘86 and went on my mission ‘87 – ’89 — finished up like ‘93 or ‘92, something like that.

It’s interesting. I went to BYU on an art scholarship, and BYU is far more conservative than most universities out there. But even so, the BYU art program leans toward a liberal side and it’s very progressive the way they work with artists. What I mean about this is they like to promote contemporary art. I felt like a fish out of water when was I at the BYU art school.

It came time to start the BFA program and you had to be a professor’s protégé, so you have to either fall in line and do what they approve of, or you’re not going to get anywhere in the program. I went to talk to Brother Bob Barrett. Very good man. I respect him a lot. I kind of just wanted to do my own thing and he let me do that. But I felt like an artist without a country–till feel like that.

They all kind of looked at me suspiciously, you know “Why are you doing [traditional art]?”

After I graduated I wondered if I ought to get a masters in painting, and I went to the art department and talk to the secretary and I told her I just graduated with a BFA in illustration and design and that I was thinking of getting my masters in painting. She looked at me and says, “You’re really going to have to think like an artist if you want to get in the masters program.”

I just turned around and thought there is no way I’m going to pursue a masters program at BYU with that attitude, and it was probably for the best because I learned to forget about what everyone thinks and just paint what’s true to [my] heart. I stopped entering contests and anything that would skew my personal vision.

I have a lot of opinions — I’ve always been that way. Even the way art is taught around the country, if you want to be a traditional artist good luck because you’re not going to get a lot of that in art school.

Thoughts on Obama

I don’t know what’s in [Obama's] heart. When I painted [The Forgotten Man] I tried to do it in a serious manner, not like a political cartoon. I wasn’t trying to make fun of the way he looks. I painted him very serious. He’s got his arms folded; he’s very resolute as he puts his foot on the Constitution.

I think his view of what the Constitution might…be different than mine. I think the Constitution really defines the role of government, and any time you do something that’s outside the spirit of the Constitution, in my opinion that’s unconstitutional, whether the Supreme Court says so or not. I don’t have a lot of faith in everything the supreme court does these days. But it’s still the law of the land. So when I say unconstitutional, I mean stepping outside of the bounds of the executive branch’s role of government, trying to grow the size of government, and trying to move us toward a more socialistic form of a democratic government.

The thing that drives me the most crazy is when people will say “Well, he’s was a Constitutional attorney — don’t you think he would know?” Just because you’re a Constitutional attorney doesn’t mean anything. I think that a lot of what he has done has, in my opinion, weakened the country, inflated the size of government, and I don’t think it’s going to help us in the long run. You see, we’ve already lost our triple rating status and our national debt he wants to increase another 1.2 trillion. He’s asking for more money even though most of the country doesn’t want to do that. So he just kind of has his own agenda, and it bothers me.

Thoughts on 2012 election

I think it’s going to be a tough election. Even with all this baggage Obama has I don’t think the Republicans have it in the bag.

I’m not crazy about one single candidate. I like a little bit of all of them. I’ll probably vote for the Republican nominee because we want to get Obama out of there.

I think Romney has the best chance of beating Obama. You know, a lot of people think that way – that’s why he’s leading in the primary now, because they’re voting for the guy they think has the best chance at beating Obama even if there might be things about him they don’t like. I mean Ron Paul has some things I like about him, but I don’t think he can beat Obama.

It’s a tough one. One thing is for sure: if we don’t repeal Obamacare and get the economy going and make some big changes in how the government works, we’re toast.

I guess I feel like what I’m doing now is more important than simply painting landscapes. You know, every person has their own mission in life, and the more people you can affect in a positive way in what you do, the better. So I suppose in that regard I’ m doing right now what is the most important thing I can do. Until I feel there’s not a reason for me or it’s not going to make a difference, I’ll probably just keep the direction I’m going.

Separation of Church and Art?

I’m sure [my beliefs] played a factor in [the art]. We’re all molded by our upbringings. I’m very patriotic in the sense that I believe in America and the Constitution, but at the same time I don’t wave the Mormon flag and say “I’m an LDS artist and you have to see my paintings because it represents the LDS point of view.” It’s just a personal reflection of what I paint. That’s the angle I’m coming from.