A lot is being said about flags and heritage now. Especially here in South Carolina.

I didn’t grow up in the South, so the long, twisted history of the Confederate battle flag or “that flag”, as people refer to it here, is not a big part of my heritage. Not that I haven’t a particular view of it. That view is just not Southern.

In my family heritage, only two relatives have put on the uniform of the United States military and fought for the American flag. To explore that idea visually, I did a few sketches of the flags my father and great, great grandfather knew. My father fought in the South Pacific during WWII and my great, great grandfather fought in the Civil War. For me, the rebel battle flag (when I thought about it at all) was like Tojo’s rising sun, just the flag of a defeated enemy of my country. Ancient history.

And then I moved to the South. Odd to see that flag flying, other than in a history book or museum.

As a visual person, flags have always fascinated me. I love that people can come up with a seemingly endless variety of designs using only a few bright colors and simple geometric shapes. Flags are not art. Flags are signs. The first Confederate battle flags were meant only to distinguish the troops of the Army of Northern Virginia from the Army of the Potomac in the smoke of war. Meanings were attached later. When meanings are attached, flags become symbols.

Leo Twiggs, a well-known Southern artist, has explored the imagery of that flag for over 40 years. He said, “the Confederate flag is an icon that Whites in the South love to remember, and most Blacks would like to forget…” Leo Twiggs is Black and he’s used the imagery of that flag in countless batik recreations. His images ask a visual person to look again at the thoughts and feelings behind the mere sign and symbol. I can see something of his heritage in his images, and something of the other heritages that fly that flag which are sometimes hard for me to understand, and something of my own. Leo Twiggs has turned that flag into art.

Leo Twiggs, Grandmother’s Quilt Flag, 36’x48″, 2002