Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, VA, USA  | 703.683.2323 |  Google Maps

The Profit 24×18″, acrylic on canvas—Selected by the juror Fanna Gebreyesus

This reflects the hypocrisy among our political and religious leaders. Not a religious person myself, I am yet fascinated by theology and biblical commands. I was shocked when I first read: “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”—Matthew 5:30. I am making light of that in this painting—an ancient profit who cut off his right hand. Location: somewhere in Egypt with the obelisk in the background, but it may as well be a modern urban setting, perhaps DC near the Washington Memorial.