Ikebana, 2008
Ross is, like Dream of Mary
Shelley, a meditation on a female
creator figure, here, a woman
who stitched rather than wrote
her way to fame. This would-be
flag is, like the real American flag,
oblong, but turned on its side,
just as dreams serve to upset
our usual perception of things.
The red stripes, blue ground and
white stars of the flag have been
fractured into a patchwork of
small strips. Betsy Ross could be
aptly subtitled Dream of Jasper
Johns, for, like Johns��� flags, this
one is of encaustic on board.
Kline is therefore looking to both
a female and male progenitor of
his own artistic work.
���Typically, we humans��� states
Kline, ���attempt to reshape,
control or altogether ignore
nature. But she constantly
reminds us she is pervasively and
ever-powerfully there, both in
force and subtlety.��� To make his
point Kline employs a wide range
of visual language from tribal,
folkloric, industrial, architectural,
objective, historic, literary and
scientific sources. Executed
HYLAND
