I began this series of flag paintings after the election of Barack Obama. The flag, and all that it supposedly stood for, had been missing 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 incorporated lists and words merged with signifying shapes and marks. 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 a new off-kilter form: pinkish-orange stripes that were not uniform. In this way I wanted to reinvigorate sentiments and signs gone stale from time and abuse.