Save the Last Dance for Me and These Flags Were Never Supposed to Fly

Save the Last Dance for Me and These Flags Were Never Supposed to Fly are 2 paintings from this last summer. They are both based on photos that I took. The photo of the disco ball is from many years ago. I found it in a group of photos from a show that my band had played at a bar called the Boogaloo about 7 years ago and thought that it would make a good painting. The other one, These Flags Were Never Supposed to Fly, was a photo that I took in the Catskils the summer before. It was taken in a parking lot. Both of them are 24″x32″ and are oil on canvas. Save the Last Dance for Me was painted with very expensive Cadmium Red. I had originally used it in the series Ten Great Paintings About Ten Great Philosophies, but quickly decided that I wanted it to be used outside of that context. I was instead interested in using it as a token of sentiment and an indication of personal loss. I was also particularly drawn to painting the patterned reflections of the passing lights on the ceiling.
For These Flags Were Never Supposed to Fly I was interested in the differences between the flags as a foreground, abstract object and its relationship to the “realistic” background sky. The flags are “flat,” made only with the colors red, white and blue and the sky is painted with an ominously dark cloud appearing in the upper right hand corner. I also like that the string of flags second from the top runs in the opposite direction, so instead of being red, white and blue is blue, white and red. In the end, I thought that the composition was a little too “designed.” I tend to like my paintings “centered” to avoid the problem of designed compositions.