Abstract painting | Satan and his minions
Abstract painting | Satan and his minions

Bold. Black. Evil.

Dimensions: 45x45cm
Painted: 2010
Materials: Acrylic on canvas
Private collection

The story behind Satan and his minions

I was a fly on the wall of a room in the Pentagon one day in 2002 and saw a gathering of Satan’s minions who were there to plan a war. In this room, there was George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld, and out of this moment in time, a painting emerged. They spoke of crushing their foe Saddam Hussein in a display of American military might.

All three men were Christians and believed that by using violence with their massive war-machine, they would bring about an end to tyranny in Iraq. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

Satan is a construct of the people who believe in God. There is no God, and there is no Satan. But the idea of Satan is a good one to show religious people the true nature of the reality of war. They understand Satan to be truly evil and see him as someone who uses pain, torture, violence, and suffering as the tools of his trade. And yet they always fail to see that when they advocate (or remain passive and silent) on the issue of war, they become everything they warn against.

Satan infects the heart of those that call for war. Satan doesn’t care for sides; he wants to smell rotting corpses. Satan doesn’t care if you are a Christian, a Muslim, or a non-believer. He wants to see humans pitted against one another in senseless violence.

Bert Ernie