WHY PAINT FLAGS YOU ASK?

Well, that's a very good question!  I didn't really realize I was even painting flags until they just seemed to happen without my planning or forethought.  I found I LOVE to paint them. I love to experiment with them and the possibilities are endless. They just seem to keep popping out of me much to my surprise!  

I didn't really connect the dots until I realized that my personal FB page has this photo of me as a child on the 4th of July as my profile photo for years now.  This photo sums me up as a little girl! I have always LOVED the 4th of July! It's my favorite holiday to this day. When I was a child we had this HUGE flag that we hooked to our front porch vertically and it would billow in the breeze and I loved to look at my neighborhood from behind it's colors. Being part of the community parade was a highlight for me as you can see that  in the photo dressing up was a priority! There were three legged races, Igor the neighbor had an OmPapa band that people danced too near the band shell in the park where everyone was having picnics of bbq chicken, corn, and fun blueberry and strawberry cakes. And if this wasn't enough, there would be awesome fireworks to stay up late to watch. Life could not get any better! If we were not in town for the 4th we spent it in northern Minnesota on the iron range with my father's family and that had an even larger parade and more fun!

Speed ahead, and my family owns a big red barn that every year we have a 4th of July party and I hang big buntings on my home's front porch from mid June to the end of July. (why save it all for one day!)  I still love how they billow in the wind and shade my porch andI love looking thru them just as I did as a child. 

And now here I paint flags...I love how people react to them. I love sharing them. I love when I paint them how they show themselves to me.  I love the deep connection we have to our flag, that I have to it.  I love expressing it in unexpected ways.  I even love hearing a lot about Jasper John's  over and over again.  One of these days I think I'll paint a flag and name it "Ode to Jasper". 

Painting our flag is truly becoming a spiritual journey for me.  I look forward to where they will take me next and what colors they will be and who I will get to share them with.  We live in a glorious land of freedom and much sacrifice to get us here and I am so grateful. 

So, glad you asked! I hope you will enjoy my flags! If you get tired of them, there is always some wild next painting around the corner that is usually a good departure for me, but know the red white and blue runs deep in my blood.

Cheers!