Created: 12/19/2006 5:12:25 PM 
(Ohio) - Artist Keith McGuckin's latest controversial work is entitled "The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men". It depicts the holiday cookies dressed up in full Nazi uniform, complete with swastikas and mustaches--standing around a fire pit.
This is the third McGuckin work that draws on controversy to make its point. In 2004 he showcased a work focused on suicide in a Wellington, Ohio video store.
While the artist says the piece is open to interpretation--he hopes, more than anything, it opens dialogue.
"There is no hidden message here, it is not mean spirited. I hope people say, 'Oh my gosh, look at that thing! I hate to admit it, but it?s pretty cute'. That's the reaction I hope to get."
"Why would you do something like this and ruin Christmas?" asked Shalon Raab of Wellington. "Christmas has to do with families and gifts and Jesus, nothing to do with the Nazi's."
"Well it?s not for everybody," McGuckin says. "Everybody is entitled to their opinion and that's fine."
It had been in the store-front of an Oberlin, Ohio hardware store, but after seeing the work in person, the store owner took it down.
Chris Tye - WKYC
