In a subversive turn of craft, Deborah Lawrence responded to an offer to design a Christmas ornament for the White House by submitting a design that
honored the radical history of Washington State including Jim McDermott’s support for impeachment, [anti-]WTO [activism], and the Seattle General Strike of 1919, in tiny writing that weaves through a stripy design.
The ornament hung amidst several hundred others until the ornament’s subversive statements were brought to national attention by the Washington Post. She was subsequently censured from the White House Christmas Tree, on orders from the First Lady herself, and branded an “evil, maniacal artist” by the conservative crowd.
Around here, though, she gets a round of applause. Here is the artist in her own words.
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