Flag Vendor, 2002. Oil on canvas, 42 x 60 inches.
Private Collection.

For several weeks after the 9/11 tragedy I saw many people, especially Third World people and immigrants, selling American flags. I witnessed the reality of America as a nation of immigrants, which reminded me of the words of Emma Lazarus at the base of the Statue of Liberty:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!