AN ENRON QUICKIE: SOVIET AMERICANA

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I've been hammering away at a few large scale projects this week, hence the dearth in new post-ness. Until I get those wrapped up, sate your appetite for abstract mediocrity on this lovely tidbit from my archives...

This is yet another project born from a glorious trip to Hobby Lobby, during which time I found a 2' wide by 3' tall painting of an understated home's front door with an American flag dangling right next to it - the realities of life in Grand Island, Nebraska have never looked so romantic.

A message-less piece of flotsam if there's ever been one, surprisingly this fine art-like object's retail value had been lowered 5 or so times over, as was evidenced by its lengthy trail of bygone price tags. The oldest tag read $65, the newest $4. I've never been one to pass up 94% savings, so I made this fine piece of Americana my own. Norman Rockwell would have been so proud.

There's an old show business maxim that I like to enlist every now and again: When in doubt, make a reference to the Soviet Union. It worked for Yakov Smirnoff, and by God, I was going to make it work for me.



And a bit closer up...



As simplistic as this modification was (this "project" took me all of 8 minutes to complete), I'm rather pleased with the end results. It's an odd juxtaposition, having such a traditional and easily recognizable piece of Americana flying the flag of the least American country (with the possible exception of Serbia) in the modern history of mankind. It's a little like if a casino stamped pictures of Lenin and Kruschev on the back of their highest value chips: You're led to believe there's some sort of message at play, but you have no idea what it is.

Well, neither does the artist, so just forget about it and get on with your life, you damn dirty ape.