Daydreamer; My Father
Date: 2001
Region: North America
Subject: Nudity Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium: Painting
Artist: Alberto Gomez (b. 1956)
Confronting Bodies: State Attorney's Office
Dates of Action: December 2001
Location: Voluntia County Courthouse, Deltona, FL
Description of Artwork: Daydreamer depicted a boy deep in thought with juvenile drawings in the background, one of which was anatomically correct male red devil figure.
My Father showed an old man eating with various sketched figures in the background. One of the sketches is a man that for some people at the State Attorney's Office looked like the devil.
The Incident: The paintings were removed from the Volusia County Curthouse after officials in the State Attorney's Office complained they were offensive. They claimed that the paintings were inapropriate for their original location, a hallway adjacent to a courtroom where (on occasions) child sexual abuse cases are heard.
Results of Incident: The incident had reached media attention and the National Coalition Against Censorship, whose involvement into the case had prompted the City officials to return both paintings to the Volusia County Courthouse. They were hung in a different location though.
Source: www.news-journalonline.com, NCAC
