In late April and early May, the Seattle’s Art/Not Terminal gallery featured two obscene, blasphemous paintings, both of which were displayed in the gallery’s window. As described by Michelle Malkin in the Seattle Times, the first painting showed “a smiling papal figure standing between two nuns. Each nun has her hand on the head of a male figure who is kneeling in front of the papal figure’s crotch. Are they conferring a religious blessing—or forcing the figure to perform oral sex?” It was entitled, “A Sex Act?”
Here’s how Malkin described the second painting: “Hanging from a crudely designed crucifix made of intersecting penises is a Jesus Christ-like figure receiving oral sex from a veiled figure. Below the cross, two nuns lie on their backs with the ends of a coat hanger between their legs. Pages of the Bible are scrawled with the Satanic figure, 666.” There was also a “painted depiction of a priest receiving oral sex from a small child.”
William Donohue voiced his thoughts to the press this way:
“We’ve known about these paintings for two weeks but decided not to issue a statement given the fact that the artist, Leigh Thompson, was actually calling the Seattle media trying to draw attention to his junk-yard creations. The gallery’s location and status are on a par with the abilities of the artist, and that is why we decided to let this public-access TV equivalent pass without comment. The gallery is a non-juried dump on Westlake street that accepts any submission for a mere twenty bucks.
“I personally spoke with the artist last week and found him to be barely literate. Given all this, the Catholic League has no intention of using its resources to chase after Mr. Thompson. His fifteen minutes of fame have already been exhausted and that is why he will soon disappear. Unless Larry Flynt picks him up.”
The league is pleased to note that the new Archbishop of Seattle, His Excellency Alex J. Brunett, publicly protested the artist’s work.
