Flag Series 2009
I began this series of flag paintings after the election of Barack Obama. The "flag" and all that it supposedly stood for had been hijacked for many years. Even Obama had been compelled to wear a small enamel flag on his lapel in order to demonstrate that his American credentials were fully in order. Now, with his election, it suddenly seemed to me, a new, authentic and proper meaning had been restored to certain images and phrases. My paintings have always taken off from lists and words merged with signifying shapes and marks. Now, I began with words extrapolated from well known early American songs and ballads. I wanted to release meaning from where it had become imprisoned in cliché, but do so through art by writing and rewriting text on new, off kilter forms: pinkish-orange stripes that were not uniform. In this way I wanted to reinvigorate sentiments and signs gone stale from time and abuse. |
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