The Patriot
What is a patriot? A New England NFL team? Someone who sports an American flag on their T – shirt? An 18th-century British colonist? Can you still be a patriot and be anti-war?
Kyle and Kelly Phelps used ceramic and mixed media to create “The Patriot” for the visual arts faculty and staff exhibit in gallery 249 in the department of visual arts’ new facility in the College Park Center.
A sullen black man wearing a ruined military jacket and holding a tiny American flag sulks with his grocery cart behind him – full of what seem to be the only belongings he has. From 100 yards away the art appears to be a painting but really is a hanging 3-D scene.
A grubby American flag that appears to have been through the same hardships as the man sitting in front of it, is the backdrop. His cart is full to the brim with tiny plastic bags, a painting of Jesus and other tarnished belongings.
In a time when thousands of American soldiers are arriving home from Iraq to a country with a nearly 9 percent unemployment rate, this scene becomes a reality, and the word patriot takes on new meaning.
The work depicts a man who risked his life for Americans who comfortably stroll by him in their plush designer coats, talking fast on an iPhone, headed to their penthouse office, no regard for his tragic situation. This art depicts not a homeless man, but a patriot, and one that could use the support of his fellow Americans. Maybe then they could earn the title of ‘patriot,’ too.
