The American Flag Made of Toy Soldiers, Sneakers, Legos, Eyeglasses & More.

above: detail from Dave Cole's American flag made of melted toy soldiers and paint.

In honor of this year's Fourth of July, I'm sharing with you some artistic interpretations of the United States National Flag. However, I can't write a post on modern art and American flags without mentioning Jasper Johns, the artist whose modern paintings of American Flags are known throughout the world, the most famous of which is shown below:

above: Jasper Johns, Three Flags, 1959

Now, a selection of America's Stars and Stripes, aka Old Glory, as assemblages made with everything from Greek beach pebbles to bike chains.

American flag made of melted and painted plastic toy soldiers by artist Dave Cole:




American flag made of toy soldiers by Valerie Leonard:



American flag made of eyeglasses and ephemera by artist David Datuna:




American flags made of license plates by Aaron Foster:




American Flag made of Cooperstown baseball bats cut in half for wall mounting. Available here or on ebay:


Converse created American flags made of red, white and blue high-tops for several of their stores worldwide. The images below are from their Soho, Dusseldorf and Berlin stores:






American flag made of beach pebbles on the shores of Cyprus, courtesy of Hans2568:




Artist Cameron Gray has created mosaics of the American flag from oil paintings of food on 2 x 3 wood tiles. (and this one from erotic photography too graphic to show on this blog):




American flag made of reclaimed bicycle chains by ReGeared on etsy:




Giant Lego American Flags (for both the Nixon Library and Disneyworld):


above photo courtesy of mynico76 on flickr

above photo courtesy of Gotham Guy on flickr

above photo courtesy of Disney Dan on flickr

And lastly, I love these composites of modern chairs making up the American flag made by Design Within Reach and sent out as e-mails to their customers:



UPDATE! I just received this year's DWR flag composition made with Adirondack chairs and here it is:


Related links of interest:
• US Flag Rules and Regulations
• The Flag of the United States on Wikipedia
• A nice article by Kristian Goddard on the Resilience of the Stars and Stripes.
• A website dedicated to the U.S. Flag
• US Flags and Flagpoles

Forever may she wave. Happy Fourth of July!

The Oil Paintings and Pastels of Contemporary Artist Susan Bennerstrom

above: Susan Bennerstrom, Fort Mason, 32" x 36", oil painting

Artist Susan Bennerstrom began working in pastels and then moved to oil paints in 2008, but her exploration with the depiction of light has continued despite the change in mediums as you will see in this collection of her works.


above: Susan Bennerstrom, Expect to Wait, 35" x 42" 2001, oil pastels


above: Susan Bennerstrom, Still Waiting, 2010, 20" x 24", oil paint on panel

With strong plays of light, shadow and reflections, her works seem to imply either anticipation or expectation - and in some cases, absence. Despite the presence of the human figure in her work, the narrative suggests that one is either coming or has been there.

While she continues to paint interiors and objects, recently she added paintings of buildings within landscapes, to her repertoire. Focusing on the structures rather than the environment, she imbues them with the haunting light of dusk or dawn.


above: Susan Bennerstrom, Georgetown, 32" x 36", oil painting

above: Susan Bennerstrom, Stove, 32" x 36", oil painting

Lonely hallways, inviting stairwells, unmade beds, doors ajar, empty chairs and open windows offer a hint of the human presence in many of her works. Below are just a few of my favorites.



















Susan Bennerstrom:


In the artist's own words:
"Since the early 1980’s my main theme has been the exploration and depiction of light. I began with landscape as a foil. Gradually, buildings started to enter the compositions, at first far away and tiny, then closer and larger, until the buildings became the main focus and the landscape shrank. Finally, I concentrated on details of the buildings and the objects within them. Always, however, the structures and objects are stage sets for light with its transformative power and ability to affect emotions. I rarely put figures in my paintings, as I find that they tend to take over; I prefer to let light and shadow imply the narrative and carry the emotional weight. In addition to the dearth of human figures, I also choose to paint quite ordinary scenes, and for the same reason: by focusing on the easily ignorable architectural detail, washbasin, household appliance, piece of furniture, or houseplant, I like to explore how a fall of light can turn a humble item into something poignant and worthy of lasting attention.

I don’t think of myself as a realist painter in the currently accepted sense. I work from photographs, which are themselves abstractions – one step removed from reality. I travel further into abstraction by removing details, shifting things around, changing perspective, exaggerating the quality, color, and direction of light, investing the shadows with greater emotional intensity. The paintings wander far afield of straightforward observations of reality, and instead become my own emotional response to the places and objects depicted.

I have worked for many years in pastels, both chalk and oil. At the beginning of 2008 I laid pastels aside and began working in oil paint. Haven’t looked back. While I continue to love the look and feel of pastels, they presented problems: with chalks it was the dust, with oil pastels it was finding a durable and easy-to-use varnish. Now I’m at home with oil paint, and finally understand why it is the granddaddy of all art mediums."

Susan is presently showing at the Sue Greenwood Fine Art Gallery.
You can see Susan's available works at the Davidson Galleries