Liberty, Justice, and Fraternity

13 in x 21 in,

2/2024

I painted this piece for a close friend and professional colleague who always goes above and beyond in his work. He and his family strongly identify with their Romanian heritage, so I decided to honor that by developing an artistic interpretation of the Romanian flag. The modern Romanian flag is made up of horizontal tricolors of blue, yellow, and red, but instead of painting only one shade of each, I decided to lay down vertical stripes of various hues of each of the primary colors, thinking that the various tones would represent the diversity and strength of the Romanian people. In researching the flag, I found out that the colors represent attributes dating from the early 1800's: blue for liberty, yellow for justice, and red for fraternity, which provided the name for the final work.