American Flag Standard

Few designs are as instantly recognizable—or as emotionally charged—as the American Flag. It’s a shared image that belongs to all of us and continues to evolve alongside the country itself. It inspires new interpretations while remaining connected to its history. For artists, it provides a familiar structure onto which new ideas can be projected, yet it remains recognizable no matter how much it’s altered. And considering the countless ways artists have reimagined it over the years, there are just as many ways for viewers to find their own meaning in it.

My first American Flag painting was commissioned by a collector in Germany in 2012. He was assembling a group of contemporary street artists to create their own interpretations of the flag. I always think about a joke I heard as a kid where a comedian likened the states to emotional states. So in my version, the states aren’t geographical (though by the time I was in high school I had visited all 50 United States!), but emotional ones. My expressive ice cream heads seemed like the perfect visual solution.

The finished piece is playful and optimistic. It closely follows the official proportions of the American Flag and has been thoroughly labored over, but I hope it still feels fresh and full of life. The structure remains intact while each element has been transformed through my own visual language, following the long contemporary tradition of artists using the flag as a framework for personal expression.

In the end, it feels like a proper Buff Monster piece—one that suggests individuality, variety, creativity, and eccentricity can all coexist within a shared structure.

They’ve been exquisitely printed by my old friends at Static Medium on proper archival paper. The colors are bright, the linework is crisp, and both sizes fit standard frames, making them easy and economical to display. 

American Flag
Archival pigment print on Moab Entrada 290 gsm cotton rag paper
24 x 18" (60.9 x 45.7 cm)
Edition of 250
Numbered, signed and dated
Unframed

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