Material 002: Pride

This is me waving my flag. Not out of pride, but surrender. A flag of surrender, prismatic in reverse. Cascades of color converging on one side, emerging in a lone capitulatory beam of white on the other. It knows both sides; shows only one.

These vignettes were never intended to be impressionistic. Sometimes it’s just easier to hide in the fog. In all honesty, I drew those colors there just as a way of testing out the different brushes I had, seeing how they came out on the jeans. But as with any symbol, a planted seed takes on life of its own. And so it sat there fermenting in a sealed jar, the absence of oxygen and daylight turning it into something it isn’t, or something it is, or something it wants to be. I’ve opened the jar, peered in, but I still can’t see the bottom. I’m not even certain the bottom exists—the depths feel unknowable at times. Voices bark from the darkness. They say there’s things I can’t know, and I believe them. A hoarse voice vaguely reminiscent of my own tries to shout back. And now, in all honesty, I don’t know which flag has been raised.