PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Jan. 31, 2007 — Charles Merrill, 72, the well-known artist, has painted a series of "Pink Power" paintings in homage to people of sexual diversity who have been oppressed by Christian Conservatives and the Nazi Germans of WWII. The "Pink Power" paintings are on his web site at .
Merrill states from his studio in Palm Springs, "These paintings are to honor the 'two spirited one' (Lakota winkte or berdache), and those gay men who lost their lives in Nazi concentration camps. The winkte were gay or bi-sexual men who dressed as women and were honored by Native American tribes as spiritual leaders. Chief Crazy Horse married a male winkte. The gay victims of Nazi concentration camps were made to wear an upside-down pink triangle badge on their sleeve and pants leg."
Merrill has been a guest speaker at National Gallery of Art, Dublin, Ireland; Women's Democratic Club, Washington, D.C.; Norton Gallery and School of Art, West Palm Beach, Fla.; and other important venues.
Merrill's work is represented in important International collections, including members of the Walter Annenberg family.
Charles Edwin Merrill, who comes from the same family as Charles Edward Merrill, one of the founders of Merrill Lynch & Co., continues to be under attack by the IRS for not filing income tax in protest on over two million in stock sales and income for 2004. The IRS is withholding 28 percent of Merrill's income that they know about, until he files a report. Merrill and his partner Kevin Boyle are not filing Federal income tax because the Federal tax code is discriminatory towards domestic partners and will not extend the same benefits that married couples receive.
Contact for interview:
Charles Merrill
835 North Rose Avenue
Palm Springs, CA 92262
760 219 1121
Email
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