Acrylic paint, oil pastel, fabric, rope, gold spray paint, burlap and paper on canvas
48 x 60 x 1.5 in
Original
Left and right, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, the doomed patron saints of our modern America watch over Rig and Rex. Rendered in yellowed whites, burning blues and searing reds, the two ape brothers find themselves adrift in the symbols of our nation’s flag.
This piece is a continuation of dialog I started with a painting called “Home of the Brave.” The voice we find here is a bit more gruff and it’s language perplexed. Patriotic, but there’s a lot more open-ended questions. This piece is about my adventurers, Rig and Rex trying to find their way in our new America. There is hope and there is doubt.
The Statue of Liberty stands, on the far left, atop monuments of fallen Roman patriarchs. Remember that empire, once great, brought low by its own shortcomings?
Below, the title of the poem “The New Colossus.” The poem that greets so many at the feet of Lady Liberty is now a question instead of an answer. “…Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside golden door!”
Crown thy good and God xxless America, the land that I love, the “rebel like Dean,” the ”problem child.” My country, the land of fathers, daughters, mothers and sons. America, the land of the free.