From the Archive: Rob Shetterly Makes Portraits of Truth Tellers

Peter B. Collins

For years, painter Rob Shetterly has been creating portraits of people he sees as truth tellers. His latest is of Daniel Hale, who exposed America’s drone warfare program.Shetterly wrote a moving column about Hale recently, prompting the re-post of this interview from 2018.

Update: on July 27, the judge showed some consideration in sentencing Hale to 45 months in prison, as compared to the prosecution’s request for 108 months, or 9 years.

Here is the original podcast description:

Meet Rob Shetterly, who has painted portraits of more than 200 Americans who “tell the truth”, and find out what has motivated this self-taught artist. While vacationing in Maine last summer (2017), PBC met Rob Shetterly at a dinner in Bristol, hosted by longtime listeners Abbie and Mike McMillen. Today, we introduce you to Shetterly and his impressive, and growing, body of work.

You can browse this online gallery and see the array of portraits, each inscribed with a quote or statement from the subject. We mention a number of these people, with apologies to those we didnt’ have time to talk about. Along the way, Shetterly explains that he taught himself to paint, and as Bush was lying us into the Iraq war, he started the series as a way to express his anger.

While he’s as appalled as anyone about Trump’s brazen, nonstop lies, Shetterly correctly notes that Obama and Bush lied a lot, too.

Shetterly’s collection was just exhibited in Syracuse, and is available for loan to schools and museums. Get more info here.