I enjoy playing with the layout and imagery of the U.S. Flag. Its wonderfully distinctive and highly recognizable design is practically irresistible to painters and others who enjoy creating images. Indeed, there is a long tradition of American artists reworking/re-mixing the Stars and Stripes, and I am pleased to be following in the traditional of Faith Ringgold, Jasper Johns, Anton Kandinsky, Louis Cameron (not that Kandinsky), and so many others.

8-Rock

This drawing is based on a man I saw heading for his own car as I was driving past the parking lot of a local 24-Hour Fitness. He was carrying a basketball, and so I imagine he must have been leaving after a pick-up game. Pick-up basketball at the larger East Bay gyms (Club One in downtown Oakland, 24-Hour fitness in San Leandro etc.) is serious business. I remember it well from my days as a Club One member. I liked to shoot baskets just to relax and have some fun and clear my head, but I had to be sure to get my work out in before the lunchtime games began. Guys would show up a half hour early just to warm up, and when three or four people are all shooting for the same basket, someone is bound to take a ball to the head. Not my idea of a good time. Anyway, I had to draw this guy, because so much about his express reminded me of the intensity of the East Bay gym-time basketball scene

8-Rock