Art Display Earns Artist Visit From Secret Service

Michael McDonald, not unlike many artists, wants people to see his work. During the course of his lifetime, he has produced more than 3,000 paintings, which he shows regularly from his Alameda, California home, and has done 53 wall murals in the city of Alameda.

But it’s one piece of art — which was part of an ongoing 12 year exhibit in McDonald’s front yard — that recently brought him unwanted attention. Last Thursday, McDonald, 55, returned to his home to find a business card from a U.S. Secret Service agent, the writing on the back said: “Please call me.”

McDonald did and set up an appointment for the next day. McDonald also invited his lawyer.
Three people, called “fellow citizens” by one of the two agents who showed up at McDonald’s home last Friday afternoon, had called the U.S. Secret Service and said McDonald was a threat to the president because of a life-size cardboard cut-out of President George W. Bush with a kitchen knife in his forehead was displayed in his front yard.

McDonald called the piece a political statement Tuesday in an interview at his home, not unlike the more than 500 other pieces he’s placed outside his home. He doesn’t want people to get upset by his art, he said, he wants to “engage them in thinking.”

Last year, McDonald, who served in the Navy from 1973-1979, was investigated by the Secret Service a first time for sending an e-mail to Bush telling him if he came to Alameda he would personally kick him in the backside.

Apparently that crossed a line with the Secret Service, and his recent artwork, which has been covered up with a yellow cardboard silhouette of Bush adorned with a yellow swastika, did as well.

McDonald sat with the agents, one in a suit and dark glasses and the other in casual clothing, for about an hour and a half going over an 11-page questionnaire. The questions, McDonald surmised, were meant to flush out any hostility he may harbor against the government.

They said, 'You've got a knife sitting in the head of the president of the United States,'" McDonald said. "I said, 'No, I got a knife in a piece of cardboard.'"

McDonald said the agents “suggested” he take down the artwork with President Bush. McDonald compromised, putting the yellow cardboard over it, but he said his next front-yard piece will be coming out soon, and it will probably have something to do with his run-in with the agents.