My initial intent in designing Flag Peace was to create a work mimicking Warhol's repetitious multi-colored prints. I quickly lost that thread and somehow from the depths of my art historical memories grafted Jasper Johns' flags with John Lennon's Imagine. I'm sure Yoko Ono's presence is so blinding that I can not see it as it is through her that I noticed Lennon. Gertrude Stein is also of immense importance. Her rhythm, her word density, her simplicity becoming complex: A rose is a rose is a rose...
Counter, Pop and Multi cultures are all in my personal petri dish. One parent is from L. A., the other a survivor of WW2 and displacement following the annexation of her country. My uncle eagerly signed up to fight our war in Vietnam to prove his American-ness only to become boot camp brainwashed into a hateful and prejudiced person. My childhood in Hiroshima fertilized my anti-war sentiments propelling me to a teenagedom of constant protest of nuclear anything.
I have never been in a war myself. My closest contact was travelling through Guatemala. The bus, stopped and searched by 3 versions of men in uniform, each time escorting several people away at gunpoint. The town had troops marching down the only street at dinner, off to the hills to kill. The quiet, the unease, the fear in the midst of nature's beauty disturbed. Hiroshima 20 years after our bomb was still shell shocked. My mom 50 years after WW2 still has nightmares. My uncle is hateful and homeless in the land of plenty.
I see war as a continuation of a grand cycle of destruction, it's only results are scars and submission. I have faith that this is not the manifest destiny of our humanness. We must put aside our self-centeredness, greed and arrogance in order to LIVE in this world. The next world is too far away, too abstract, too obscure and uncertain. We must learn from our great leaders: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, John & Yoko, Jimmy Carter; and continue their works in whatever small way we can so that each and everyone of us is a leader to a free, beautiful world.
Flag Peace is the American flag I want to hang. I spent a week asking my family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors how to say 'peace' in every language they know. I have collected approximately 30 languages. To me this project is both a statement of Peace and of who constitutes the US. Who is American. I know that as I have more time to ask and research, I can accumulate more languages. At this point, my flag is very intimate and personal.
If you speak a language not represented in Flag Peace and would like to have it incorporated in future versions of the flag, please send it to: TINUVIEL PO BOX 113 SOUTH BERWICK MAINE 03908 USA. You are welcome to include any additional comments and to start a dialogue within and without your community. FLAG PEACE can be made into any size for sale. Paintings are in acrylic on paper or on board. All are done on a commision basis. For ordering send inquiry to: flagpeace