VICTIMS, ( VICTIMS OF THE GUN)

RE:   VICTIMS, ( VICTIMS OF THE GUN), a series of acrylic paintings, and serigraph prints.

 Jack Cassady’s “Victims” is a political statement about Gun Legislation, and or the lack of it.

The concept for the series originated in the summer of 1991.  The Canadian government was in the process of enacting gun legislation, there was a lot of play on the airwaves, pro & con.  Jack happened on a 1989 TIME Magazine in a cottage he was renting for the summer.   The cover article was “Death by the Gun”, in one week in July (an average week in the US) there was 464 people shot by the gun, the article had a photo and description of how each person meet their demise.  This shocked the artist and he decided he had to do something.

The artist lived in the South Western US for a few years and has personal experience with American’s fascination with the Gun.  Everyone or just about everyone, even the educated, have handguns under the front seat of their vehicles.  Every day you heard of shootings, people were blown away just down the street from Jack’s house, and he lived a few blocks from the university, a good part of town.  The artist feels strongly about this legislation, he feels that Canada is going the way of the US, especially in Southern Ontario and certainly in the Toronto area.  Jack feels that gun laws should be much stronger than they are today.

The series has been exhibited throughout Europe and in Toronto.  Victims of the Gun #1 are in the collection of The Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa.  Victim # 2 & # 10 are in the collection of Crown Life Canada.

Jack started this series to open people’s eyes, and show them what can happen without proper gun laws.