So this billboard is greeting art lovers at Phoenix's weekend festival. UPDATE: Death threats

[niyad]

Who needs the NEA when artists can create their own masterpieces? (Photo: Johana Restrepo, Arizona Republic)

?1489855236

Phoenix’s “Art Detour” has been going on for decades—one of those community events where most of the art galleries and many other businesses open their spaces to patrons. Thousands of people attend, and you can spend the entire weekend visiting dozens of attractions, listening to music and enjoying demonstrations. Today, art lovers along Grand Avenue will also have another work of art to admire.

A billboard depicting President Donald Trump's face next to explosions and dollar signs created with typography imitating Nazi swastikas went up in downtown Phoenix on Friday afternoon.
The back of the billboard shows five fists forming sign language letters with the word "unity" beneath the fists. The billboard was designed by Santa Monica artist Karen Fiorito, who also created a 2004 Phoenix billboard during the Bush presidency. The art gallery La Melgosa, which also commissioned the Bush sign, hired Fiorito to design the Trump billboard. The gallery is owned by the two local art legends who started “Art Detour” in the late ‘80s. The artist said she has a "real fear" of the direction of the country politically under Trump. She said the dollar signs imitating Nazi swastikas originally were designed by New York artist Hugh Gran for her 2004 billboard, but she believed they were appropriate for use in this piece as well.

Even more so, I’d say. It’s doubtful the artist received a dime from the National Endowment for the Arts, which Trump intends to eliminate, along with the National Endowment for the Humanities, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and just about every other educational and cultural agency.

As the billboard makes clear, he needs more money for his corporate overlords’ tax breaks and to stockpile more weapons, while the NEA and NEH budgets combined wouldn’t even pay for a year of Melania’s security at Trump Tower. Priorities. Sick ones at that.

UPDATE, h/t Proginoskes. Who woulda thunk it? The artist receives death threats.
The Arizona State University alumnus said she and her husband, who don't currently live in Arizona, began receiving threats Saturday morning.
"I've been called a communist, a Satan worshiper," she said. "I've been told I'm a 'very, very sick person.' I'm not sure what that means. I haven't been answering the phone. My husband has because he's not afraid to talk to anyone, but he told me he received a couple death threats this morning. ... He said, 'They were coming to get us with their boys.' "

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/3/18/1644892/-So-this-billboard-is-greeting-art-lovers-at-Phoenix-s-weekend-festival?detail=email&link_id=1&can_id=dbb0d69c584cc3d0a04f63b55f76c85f&source=email-so-this-billboard-is-greeting-art-lovers-at-phoenixs-weekend-festival&email_referrer=so-this-billboard-is-greeting-art-lovers-at-phoenixs-weekend-festival&email_subject=so-this-billboard-is-greeting-art-lovers-at-phoenixs-weekend-festival