Beginning July 13^th, the venerable Skeleton Key Auction website will take bids on a painting created and donated by musician Brian Hugh Warner, better known as Marilyn Manson. The proceeds will go to fund the defense effort for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. in their bid for a new trial. The Arkansas State Supreme Court (ASSC) gave the circuit court the green light in September 2010 to conduct evidentiary hearings that the defense attorneys hope will exonerate their clients. This is the same hearing that was denied by former Judge, and now state senator, David Burnett back in 2008.

Manson has deliberately kept a low profile in the past, even though he is a long time supporter, fearing that his presence would hurt, rather than help the cause of the West Memphis Three. Supporters have long alleged that it was out of fear and ignorance of the occult and heavy metal music (Manson’s music is in a dark sub-genre known as "industrial metal"), that two juries convicted the WM3 in 1994. So why is he coming out of the closet now?

At the 2010 Golden Gods Awards he told the crowd, "I’ve always been a big supporter of the cause, but I chose a long time ago not to be involved because I thought I would add to the problem. But now I think it’s an important time to stand up and be a part of the problem." After repeating the time-worn "Salem witch trial" and persecution for "looking like we do" rationale, Manson said that he wouldn’t compare himself to Echols, but that he wished he had Damien’s "strength", and that it was time for everyone to "get behind the West Memphis Three and fix it."

Still, while his money is no doubt appreciated, it’s hard to imagine how associating himself with "the cause" will help the defense. It might be best if Mason makes himself scarce should the occasion arise to voir dire a new jury.  Manson, the "Antichrist Superstar", has seemingly had as one of his goals, the annihilation of Christianity. At the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) in 1997, Manson was ushered onto the stage by a full marching band playing "Hail to the Chief", with a desecrated American flag hanging in the background, and had this to say:

"My fellow Americans, we will no longer be oppressed by the fascism of Christianity. As I see you all out there . . . trying your hardest to earn your way into heaven. Well let me ask you: do you want to be in a place filled with ASSHOLES???" (He gave no hint as to other, more desirable destinations.). At this, he launched into one of his best known songs, "Beautiful People." This appearance was said to be the zenith of his career, the band giving a performance that electrified the crowd.

A lot of things have changed since 1994, but the good people of Arkansas are still decidedly Christian, and associating Echols too closely with the androgynous shock-rocker who was once dubbed a "minister in the church of Satan" by a deceased friend (Manson denies he was actually associated with the church) is something that should be avoided, one would think.

"People can look at Christ on a cross and say this is an image of murder, this has sexual imagery in it", Manson told Bill O’Reilly. "I think it’s my job as an artist to be out there pushing peoples’ buttons and making them question everything . . ." It’s hard to imagine anyone viewing a crucifix this way, although the Catholic variety, with the crucified Christ still nailed to the cross, is pretty gruesome.

All this is not to say that some of Manson’s views on religion and "sprituality" are all that outrageous. He makes the allegation that spirituality and religion have very little to do with churches, a view that an increasing number of Christians share. He also equates the hatred he invokes by Christians with that vested upon Jesus by the Jews 2000 years ago, and that, while a tad self-serving, isn’t in itself blasphemous. But the words and images he uses to express himself will not, as they say, play well in Peoria. Or Jonesboro. On his website, the latest "journal" entry is entitled, Rapeture: Christianity Manufactures Yesterdays Killers. It reads, in part, as follows:

Maybe someone else can take a stab on interpreting this, but the imagery is plain enough.

Manson has hit something of a low in his career since being dropped from longtime label Interscope after the release of The High End of Low in 2009, which sold only 142,000 copies. According to Boston.com, Manson has mounted a comeback this year, forming a collaboration between his own imprint, Hell, etc., and British indie label, Cooking Vinyl. But it’s hard to believe that his donation of the painting has anything to do with publicity; he gets plenty of that on his own. No, we have to take his actions at face value: he wants to help. And he loves symbolism, as all artists do.

Most problematic, however, is the $5,000 starting bid on the painting (which is based on Grove Pashley’s now iconic image of Echols on death row). The average WM3 supporter does not have this kind of money. Who’s going to buy it? Eddie Vedder? Johnny Depp? The auction, located at www.skeletonkeyauctions.com, will run from July 13^th through July 31^st. This, according to the auction house, represents one day for each year the WM3 have been in prison. With any luck, the painting will fetch a good price at auction and someone will wind up with conversation piece that is truly one of a kind, perhaps even of investment potential.

The whole thing seems to go against the grain for Manson, who makes it clear that he abhors capitalism (lots of rich people do). Consider these lines from "The Beautiful People":

This hypocrisy is nothing new in the world of show business. The instances are too numerous to list. They all hate money. They’re ashamed of their success.

So why donate a caricature of Echols instead of cash? Manson has sold well over fifty million records, 20 million more than Pearl Jam. He’s got the money. Although the Echols portrait is not his best work, some of his paintings are actually pretty good ("I will kill you all" and "Experience is the Mistress of Fools" are a couple of my favorites).

One thing is true, however. The untitled painting is of much higher quality than some others that have been auctioned to benefit the three. The twisted art of Emmeric Konrad comes to mind, with his "RIP" painting depicting the theory of the day, that John Mark Byers committed the murders ("Byers is a motherfucker", Konrad told running mate Chad Robertson, husband of wm3.org co-founder Kathy Bakken. Robertson himself is actually quite talented). In Konrad’s rendition, Mark Byers, wearing his signature striped shirt a la Revelations: Paradise Lost 2, is shown with dripping blood ringing his mouth, apparently meant to correlate with the inset image of victim Stevie Branch, depicting the "bite mark" wound on his forehead.

It still seems easier for Manson to just to write a check (it’s tax deductible), maybe one of those giant ones like Publisher’s Clearinghouse shows on their commercials, with a photo op somewhere with Manson presenting it to Dennis Riordan.

Can’t you see it?