GIF Artist Peekasso Puts a Psychedelic Spin on the American Flag

This week more than most, Americans are surrounded by American flag iconography, blanketing car commercials, bathing suits, and even our own website in tricolored glory. Having integrated them into dozens of his irreverent, pop culture-mashing art and GIFs, GIF artist Peekasso knows a thing or two about American flags. "The first flag I did was with my t-shirt press on canvas, with the Goldman Sachs logo replacing the blue box with the stars," he explains to The Creators Project.

Mixing the stars and bars with internet, TV, and political icons, Peekaso comments on poverty, surveillance, and his beliefs about the problems inherent in our great nation. "I'm not a patriot in the classical sense, but I like America enough to point out things to improve on, what is kind of patriotic in a way," he says. For the 4th of July, he's created a GIF highlighting "old patriots," including Garfield, a topless Chipmunk, and some sort of fusion between Donald Duck and Bart Simpson with a neon Old Glory strobing in the background. At the end of the day, what could be more patriotic than that?

Peekasso's Independence Day plans aren't an extravagant assertion of pride his home—the German immigrant just wants to drink beer and float in a lake. But when Monday rolls around, he'll get his nose back to the grindstone as a commercial creative by day and transgressive GIF artist by night. At the end of the day, he says, "I'm just a German with a green card in a complicated but fulfilling relationship with the US of A."

Check out some of Peekasso's American flag-themed art below.

See more of Peekasso's work on his website.

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