Artist Statement by Carol Taylor-Kearney: AMERICAN PRAYER FLAGS
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In co-opting Tibetan prayer flags to the American flag, I hope to signal the original intent of the flag as something bearing meaning for all rather than an object representing a mindless patriotism. This explains the different "bodies of work", the different means, I have used. I combine various aspects of each of the flags-- the actual flag, the color, shapes, layout, and content-- to communicate possible meanings and messages. In some I emphasize abstracted motifs found in the physical arrangements on the flags. In others I emphasize conceptual content. For still others I have included recognizable portraits of children or of their hands at work.
Children are often my subject because they signify the future and their actions in the paintings are the type of interactions children may have with a particular element of nature associated with a prayer flag color.
My hope is that all of the art works, hybrids of the American flag and Prayer flags, communicate to each other and create for the viewer an encompassing experience of spreading positive attitudes into a cynical the world.