[art]
These are (hopefully) the last of my political paintings for awhile. I have been trying to get away from it but couldn't. There just seemed to be something else to I had to say. So, I gave in to the urge and out came this little, middle finger of a show of political art for this Fourth of July holiday. Believe it or not, this particular show you are looking at is not about hating America. It is about questioning the image of America and what that image has come to mean to the people that don't live here. On July 4th, a day set aside by Americans to celebrate the American image, I want to invite the viewer to question how we are looking from the outside and how we got to where we are. It is our patriotic duty to question our government and express our discontent when it is necessary. That is an act of love. This show is not about flag desecration. No flag-burner could harm our national symbol now. "Old Glory" has already been desecrated beyond the point of rescue by all of the bullets, bombs and blood ejaculated on to world's belly since the 1950's; by the rapacious, cynical, and crooked craft vomited up by Šorporate America on this and every other community on earth under the guise of capitalism; and by the arrogance and avarice of our own people who are blind to the destruction of our so-called "freedom" and the hollowness of this democracy where your only choices for leader are hand-picked millionaires who cater to the highest bidder and slavishly protect the status quo. Anyway, all these flags were made in China, so they aren't "American" flags anyway. Talk about a desecration. My grandfather left his wife and two tiny children at age 32 and voluntarily joined up to board a boat bound for the South Pacific and enter one of the nastiest theaters of war imaginable. He says he put his life, and the future of his family, at such extreme risk simply for the love of the flag and the country. It was the right thing to do at the time. Only a handful of us now can comprehend that kind of a sacrifice, and our flag never flew higher at home or around the world as it did then. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure we have pissed all that away. We might as well admit it. And it didn't just happen when W decided god wanted him to be president. We can pin a tiny metal flag to our lapels or slap a plastic ribbon magnet on the trunks of our cars now, but it won't change the fact that the America that the flag stands for has been sold out and is long gone. So, I say we've got to finish the job, and burn this false idol all the way down before we can lift it anew in pride and glory. We've got to raze the flag. We've got to declare our independence from the misdeeds done in its name and the gangs that use it as a decoy to maintain power while turning their backs on everything this country should stand for. This is the new freedom. Love it or leave it.