In Morgan Weistling’s oil painting A Prayer for a New Life, a young, white pioneer couple sit inside a covered wagon, sharing a quiet moment with their swaddled newborn as prairie stretches out behind them. The work could be interpreted as a western take on the birth of Jesus; Mary and Joseph on the Oregon trail. One might imagine it decorating the oak-walled office of an oil executive in a Yellowstone spin-off show – though it is probably too schmaltzy even for that.
Last week, Weistling’s painting took on a darker meaning when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s official X account posted, to the artist’s consternation, an image of the painting with the caption: “Remember your Homeland’s Heritage.”
