That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for May 02, 2024

My original post in 2020:

The defense attorney decided to argue against the reliability of facial recognition technology.

/// …then he dreamt of a courtroom with creatures

who were faceless with featureless features.

One blank stood in the aisle:

“You can’t sleep at your trial,

and your farts can be heard in the bleachers!”

My original comment: The new way to face the law in a pandemic; remove all faces.

You know you’re in trouble when your lawyer spends all her time crocheting a baby blanket.

There being no other way of curtailing this uniquely important defendant’s constant threats, against the judge himself and the jury, his honor impaneled a jury of completely faceless individuals, and then had his own face surgically removed. It was the only way to deal with such an important personage. After all, any fool can see that all men are not created equal.

The man with no face being tried by a jury of his peers.

the latest Law and Order franchise…Blind Justice *

OK, who planted all those eggs of the face-hugger aliens in the courtroom? And then locked all the doors…

The case was vague at best.

O well….Justice is Blind….

So who’s that guy sleeping at the defense table?

This is better than the courtroom sketches we’re getting from NY.

The defendant exuded bile/

The artist was buzzed all the while/

And that, folks, is why/

We ought not to deny/

The presence of cameras at trial !

If the face doesn’t fit you must acquit!

When you take the term “faceless bureaucracy” a little too literally.

Whoa, whoa, whoa — this painting does not meet DEI standards for display…

Talk about some blank stares.

We’re all going to in a hand basket since T arrived…he made it ok to bring out the dark side of ourselves…

Court recording of an anonymous grand jury.

The aggressive prosecutor and the veteran defense attorney knew they’d be be facing off in court, but…….

DA -“You honor, the jury have no noses.” Judge -“Oh, then how do they smell?” Defendant -“They stink on ICE!”

For a couple of days there, we had good-sized images for “Priceless”; now we seem back to miniatures. Can we get out of thumbnail mode again, please?

This is a preliminary sketch of Trial by Jury: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

Nelson-Atkins Benton "Trial by Jury" 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose currently the first Trial by Jury link for info and perhaps links that point to more info about the painting that followed the sketch. 

Again, a larger strip image is shown by merely clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s THROWBACK THURSDAY: MASTERPIECE #2490 (7/13/20) (May 1, 2024) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment. I have added a comment there pointing to the info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, only work by him used here (2 times total, including this Throwback Thursday repeat), the July 13, 2020, strip being its first use. As I stated in my comment there, copyright issues keep me from posting the image to Wikimedia Commons.

Some of the comments from the 7/13/20 post:

rmremail: I have nothing to say – This painting has no sex or violence

Call me Ishmael: Don’t forget gluttony sloth and avarice …

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Strob: In the classic Far Side where the bandit on horseback had his bandana tied around his eyes, “This can’t be right – I can hear the train, but I can’t see a blamed thing!”

Papared25: Further proof that Tommy Benton skipped class the day they taught facial features in Art 101.

-----

Kind&Kinder: Unfortunately, they all left their faces in a jar by the door.

Charliegirl: They were SUPPOSED to leave their phones!

Kind&Kinder: They’re very lonely people; they can’t get along without their phones!

Carolyn Saunders: Nothing like a Beatles lyric to provide an earworm for the day

jmcenanly: Where do they all come from?

Another Take: Father McKenzie on trial for murder and disposal of a corpse.

Call me Ishmael: You say the door’s ajar? I left my hearing aids in the car …

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gopher gofer: this must be the japanese porn version – the original isn’t blurred out …

http s : / / art . nelson-atkins . org / objects / 1317 / trial-by-jury

Egrayjames: “Mask On … Mask Off”

DATo: “TOMMY!!! This is a picture of what our ‘American Courtroom Action Figure Diorama’ looked like before you played with it and now you have returned it with all but two of the dolls NAKED!!! What is the meaning of this?” – Day School Teacher … “Oh, the two with the clothes still on are the lawyers.” – Tommy

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Part 2 of 7/13/20 comments:

syzygy47: What happens when the video technician forgets to turn off the suspect pixellation button.

Buzzworld: “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, how can we face the facts if we have no faces?”

Another Take: Artist taking the “Justice Is Blind” trope a little too far.

Bookworm: The result of a paint-by-number panel done by someone who felt the details were just too tiny to try and paint in.

Call me Ishmael: Depiction of the legal system fading into insignificance.

Call me Ishmael: The defendant’s a murderous brute / but the “President” thinks he’s “cute” / hence the Jury’s decision / is met with derision / and a pardon renders it moot !

Stone’s a crook, and he always has been/ and there seems no way he can win/ but it all goes away/ at the end of the day/ when a much bigger crook weighs in.

Rev Phnk Ey: OK, I understand everything that is going on except why is that guy zipping up his pants during closing argument?

rugelrn: links are no longer allowed. Use your favorite internet browser and search “Courtroom reunion honors Thomas Hart Benton painting”.

PoodleGroomer: Legal artist sketches from the Witless Protection Program.

MissScarlet: Anyone lose a purple leg?

cheap_day_return: They all have that blank look on their face ….

independent of the case presently preoccupying us all, this is a psychologically penetrating painting. If you look at the focal point, you find the tiny defendant, cowering, alone before the overwhelming “mass” of the court machinery. In Benton country (Missouri, Arkansas ) in the 1930’s, it’s likely that poor people got pretty short shrift from The majesty of the law”.

Painting of persons unknown by “Anonymous Bosch”.

Is that a dunce cap leaning against the desk on the right?