Take Down That Cross

Colored Pencils/Watercolor/Dry-brush Watercolor
Vellum pasted on Ampersand™ Gessobord
16¼ x 7¼" 
2010

(The parchment measures 1½ x 1". The letters in the 10 lines are too small to measure with a ruler. I used a jeweler's lens working a ½" under that lens.) Enlarged view here: [link]

This is what the parchment says: 

The Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government.

Philosophy is the goal toward which religion was only a helplessly blind groping.

--Ayn Rand

If you know "America the Beautiful" you know the lines:

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

Most of this is in my work. Along with these:

Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years

There's so much I put into this work I'll probably have to come back here and explain all that was in my conscious mind. I started this in March. Let it go with standing orders to the subconscious to come up with solutions. I picked it back up the beginning of October and worked an hour or two on it. The past two weeks I've worked on it 12+ hours/day. The problem was to make a universal picture -- avoid a propaganda picture. Although this latter can be seen but only as a kind of foil.

Large image

This painting is for sale.  Ask.  Or make an offer.