Flags and Fireworks

One of my elementary school art students, while perusing my works-in-progress in my studio, recently commented, “You sure must like to paint Harveys Lake because you paint it a lot.” Hmmm—I guess I do! However, this mini series of flags and fireworks will be my last lake paintings for a while as I stretch to a new artistic challenge. But yes, yes, yes, I do enjoy painting Harveys Lake!

Back in January, my friend and fellow artist Theresa Banas inadvertently rattled my cage when she innocently asked, “Sue, what are you going to paint for America 250?” With eyes wide open in shock, I stammered, “I… I don't know! But I’d better get started!” With my love of history, I can’t believe that America 250 wasn’t even on my radar this past January! I hope I have redeemed my reputation by painting numerous American flags, including watercolor flags with words which I shared last month and these acrylic paintings I call “Flags and Fireworks” to commemorate our nation’s birthday. 

This series began when I noticed a photoshopped image in a calendar of a flag that seemed to float across the sky, overlapped with a time-exposure photo of fireworks. That style is known as surrealism, the depiction of real things in unreal situations. Flags don't actually float through the sky attached to nothing! The fireworks were soft and blurry. But that calendar photograph sent my artist brain into creativity mode and these paintings happened!

Because one of my favorite evenings of the year is the Labor Day celebration at Harveys Lake, including all of its patriotic music, extraordinary fireworks, and red sails on parading sailboats, I searched my phone’s photo album for past years of the event and found several videos of  various “grand finales.” I snapped screenshots from some of those videos and combined several for my painted-in-acrylic light displays.

Fireworks were actually invented over 1400 years ago in China, and that county has dominated global pyrotechnic production ever since then! In fact, 90% of the fireworks used in professional displays are manufactured in China. A few come from Spain, Italy, France, and Japan, but stringent American regulations including safety and environmental laws and high labor costs prevent American manufacturers from entering the market.

As a reader who enjoys the words and phrases of others, I actually keep a list of writer’s words describing fireworks which bring pictures to my mind: “celebration of life…sparklers in the sky… confetti in the sky…explosions of joy…lightning starbursts...fiery chrysanthemums…dandelions of light.” Aren't they awesome word pictures? 

The flags I painted in this series came from a collection of flag photos I have taken through the years. One of the problems student artists have when drawing or painting our American flag is achieving the correct number of stars and stripes. I don't mean the single-star graphic design flags in advertisements and merchandise, or innocent, symbolic drawings by young children, but depictions of our flag created with realism as a goal. Yet, it's easy and fun to recognize flag design specifics: a blue field with 6 stars across, 5 stars high, a star in the center of each of those grids making 50; three white and three red alternating stripes below the blue star field, beginning with white; and 7 alternating stripes to the side of the blue field, beginning and ending in red. The tricky part comes when the flag waves, folds, and moves through highlights and shadows and the star shapes change with perspective and scale! I tried to combine flag realism and yet include the emotion of fireworks with the explosions, the smell, the echoes, and our beautiful flag, as it hangs or floats surrealistically from “skyhooks.”

Our American flag is said to be a symbol of unity, liberty, and sacrifice. It stands for both individual rights and civic responsibility. John Philip Sousa, creator of our very best American patriotic march music, referred to our flag as “freedom’s shield and hope.”

As much as I love living InSide the Back Mountain, and as much as I loved creating these paintings, it's good to remember that we are so much more than fireworks, which are over in a few moments. The Back Mountain is ours, hopefully, for years to come if we protect it. An unknown author once wrote, “Our flag doesn't fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.”

Happy 250th Birthday, America!

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This article originally appeared in the July 2026 publication of InSide the Back Mountain.