SWD 39

The Sea Monsters and the Martyrdom of Stephen Tyrone Johns, June 10, 2009

Art: 2020
Media: Mosaic-drawing combo
Size:51.5 inches H x 28.5 W [130.81 cm. H x 72.39 W]

Viewer's note - this artwork has not yet been professionally photographed. Stay tuned! Thanks, A.K. Segan, January 2021

Stephen Tyrone Johns, born 1969, was a native of Maryland. A U.S. Federal police officer, he worked at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. Married, the father of a son and two stepsons, he was shot to death on June 10, 2009 by a Christian American terrorist at the entryway of the museum. The perpetrator -assailant terrorist was a long-time Ku Klux Klan member and professional anti-Semitic Holocaust denier.
May the memory of Stephen Tyrone Johns be blessed.
~
In additional to allegorical sea monsters depicted in the mosaic areas, the artwork has, in addition to the drawing portrait of officer Johns (seen at lower right) 3 other drawings: 2 drawings on the left depict child victims inspired by Warsaw ghetto photos.
~
The abstract images drawn in the left side of the Warsaw ghetto photo inspired drawing of a girl [the framed drawing at upper left] were inspired by color photo plates of the Kalonymus Bible, seen in the book The Jews of Poland and Lithuania Up to the Middle of the 17th Century – In Paint, Stone and Parchment. The book author was the late Shmuel A. Arthur Cygielman (published in Jerusalem, by Cygielman, 2004).

~
The drawing at upper right was inspired by a photo in the USHMM collection. It depicts a Romani boy in Europe photographed by photographer Jan Yoors; the photo was taken sometime between 1930 and 1939. The photo can be viewed in the online USHMM website photo archives; photo # 99753.  

~
Art © A K Segan