Stalemate comes to an end

With Industrial Wall, version #2 painting completed and version #1 a week earlier, I was itching to start another painting but then there was one leaning against the family living room wall that I had hoped to have completed by now, especially this last weekend since the painting is of the American flag and this nation just had celebrated Fourth of July.

For more than a year I thought of doing a series of paintings involving the American flag and what it had become to represent under the former Bushes Administration. Great thought was taken as to the idea of defacing the American flag, for that matter, any sovereign nations flag and how one might feel about. The idea of adding paint, various acrylic mediums, an oil glaze, and eventually text from the American Constitution or other text was all carefully analyze, along with my own personal feelings about America, my host country.


Over time the project began to visually materialize, then in January of this year I had that creative itch which remained persistent over a number of days. Without much planning I proceeded to paint, only to find myself later in a long stalemate that has lasted almost five months.

A number of solutions were contemplated during those months and I even came close to implementing one, but every time I proceeded to try and leave a mark, that long awaited change, I stopped. Though frustrated with myself, I promised myself this painting would not be abandoned!


Sometimes a spontaneous attempt towards a blank canvas can work. In the beginning this painting had everything going for it until I realized that if wanted to add handwritten text, portions of a shredded copy of the American Constitution, and possible some anti war graffiti, the sequence I had so far undertaken, now had a few wrinkles.

This holiday weekend provided a breakthrough, as I took on the attitude of ‘What have I to lose?’ when the first pencil marks were laid the words ‘defending democracy, defending identity’, progress was finally being made and more words were now being written on the painting.


Though there were numerous interruptions this Sunday, work on the painting slowly continued, carefully selecting an area where to leave a word, a thought, or a sentence and though considerable progress had been made, the painting still remained unfinished. Only now did I begin to see that with a few more words or couple of lines the painting would not only be completed, it would reflect the feeling I had so long wished to express.