You say you want a revolution . . . well, you know . . . we all wanna' change the world.

As a continuation of Small Works Folk Art Week, today I picked a few pieces of patriotic-themed folk art to help you get excited to go to the polls. Patriotism and US History seem to be common subjects for folk artists. I guess love of country is a universal emotion and one that people are eager to express (and some of us don't ever wear lapels and therefore don't ever wear lapel pins. Which does not make us less patriotic.)

Did you know that, long before women could vote, they were expressing their political views in their quilts? Some are thinly veiled and some are blatant, but I find all to be fascinating. I probably would have been one of those women. Thank goodness we have the vote now, so that I can spend my time making people with a variety of strange and wonderful heads instead.

So without further ado (we've had enough ado waiting for Nov. 4 to roll around), on with the show!


Commemorative Patriotic Quilt, Mary C. Baxter
New Jersey, 1898




Lady Liberty, Artist Unidentified
New Hampshire, 1875




Flag Gate, Artist Unknown
New York, 1876



Malcah Zeldis
Oil on corrugated cardboard, New York, 1987



George Washington
Andrew Johnson, 1985




Uncle Sam (Blow Oskar)
R. A. Miller, 1989



Lady Liberty in Teal & Purple
me, 2004
(bad scan - sorry!) Iraq war protest piece