Nation Afire

When Berkshire resident Morgan Bulkeley saw the effects that Donald Trump was having on the country as president, he felt desperate and powerless. Over time, however, Bulkeley turned to the form of expression he knows best—painting. Since Trump’s election in 2016, Bulkeley has created more than a dozen paintings that capture images related to the Trump presidency: jet planes and militarization, the degradation of nature (which in some of the paintings is fighting back), runaway commercialization, and Trump’s disregard for our country’s highest office (this painting, Nation Afire, shows him lighting fire to the White House). All created in Bulkeley’s Great Barrington studio, the paintings bristle with fear, anxiety, and anger. “They’re my way of showing my despair and disappointment,” says Bulkeley, “and are my little way of protesting.” Bulkeley eventually tired of the project, to which he never gave a title. “The process of creating them was cathartic, and that was good enough for me.” —Chip Blake