The Day – The Stars and Stripes reimagined

Colchester — Robert Carley has at all times liked drawing abstracts, caricatures and cartoons. Then the outdated Nikon he inherited from his father impressed him to take up pictures in a severe method.

The subject material for thus lots of his photographs took sharp focus after 9/11: American flags.

“It took me some time to appreciate the historic significance of documenting the response of 9/11. In my neighborhood (of Norwalk), I began seeing lovely creations — on a regular basis folks making flags and displaying loads of ingenuity and creativity. One of many huge causes was that flags had offered out. Individuals couldn’t purchase any, so folks determined to make their very own and turned what they liked right into a flag, like their automotive, their boat, their mailbox, and in most excessive circumstances, their homes,” he mentioned.

Carley snapped photographs of these creations and expanded his geographic vary, to all of Connecticut, after which to Michigan and the South, earlier than lastly touring to Washington state.

His ensuing footage have been compiled in his e book “Liberated from the Flagpole, The Metamorphosis of the Flag since 9/11,” which was printed in August 2021. He mentioned a few of these photos had been used earlier by the BBC web site as a part of the 10-year commemoration of 9/11.

His works had been additionally featured in an exhibition at Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury final summer season titled “Within the Wake of 9/11: Robert Carley’s American Journey.”

New interpretations of the flag

What has stored him fascinated by the pink, white and blue, he mentioned, is that “I hold seeing new interpretations of the flag. Something you may think about, it has metamorphosized right into a flag. Flags made out of cups, lids. I used to be impressed by what different folks had been doing. One flag I noticed that was so cool was made out of chains and bolts — you already know, nuts and bolts. It was on the facet of a tattoo store in New York state … To me, it rivals Jasper Johns.”

Johns is an American artist recognized for his depictions of the American flag.

The flag-related inventiveness impressed Carley to make his personal flags out of sudden objects.

“I by no means thought I’d make a flag out of facemasks in 1,000,000 years, however then I accrued so many facemasks, and I knew, ‘Oh, I can save these for a flag and use supplies which might be thrown out.’ I made a flag out of my espresso creamers as a result of every single day I’m going to Dunkin’ Donuts and get espresso, so I save all these creamers and I save lids and I do know I can use it and make them right into a flag,” he mentioned.

Carley has turned the whole lot from tires to water jugs into flag imagery.

“The American flag is a good design. It may be included and performed round with and interpreted greater than every other flag,” he mentioned. “With the celebs and stripes, it’s only a neat flag.”

After all, it’s not simply how the flag appears to be like that pulls him in but additionally what it symbolizes.

“I’m very patriotic, at all times have been. I’ve at all times appreciated dwelling in America. I consider it’s essentially the most free nation. It’s not good, however I consider all nations, it’s distinctive. We’ve a basis that we will construct upon,” he mentioned, citing the Structure and its amendments. “That’s why folks flock right here.”

Homes painted like flags

Carley mentioned essentially the most spectacular photos to him had been properties that had been painted like a flag, with the primary one he noticed being in Kent.

That picture was “symbolic of the nation, how America rallied across the flag, actually. Probably the most unified time, most likely, in American historical past, these few weeks after 9/11. It’s gone downhill since then,” he mentioned ruefully.

“I’m a Christian. I consider it was God’s timing that God gave me just a little reward for pictures at simply the proper time. I had some actually wonderful situations that I don’t assume had been coincidences,” he mentioned, including that he usually discovered actually fascinating issues alongside the best way when he was heading elsewhere.

Carley mentioned he has additionally had loads of “enjoyable, memorable moments” on the street in new locations — exploring, going to diners, assembly and speaking to folks.

Coming to Colchester

Carley moved to Colchester in November 2021.

“I needed to downsize. My spouse needed to maneuver. Taxes had been getting excessive in Darien, the place I moved from. It’s loads of congestion down there, and there was no actual motive for me to remain there,” he mentioned. “I had an enormous, outdated two-family home I inherited from my mom from 1828. I simply wanted a smaller home, much less bills, after which to reap the benefits of the new actual property market. So I might get a superb quantity for the home. And you then get much more bang for the buck up right here in Colchester. Colchester is a pleasant, quiet city, and I’ve a pleasant little home that’s extra inexpensive. I’ll be 64 so I don’t have to pay excessive taxes for the varsity system in Darien.”

Carley is retired now. His jobs over time included being a gross sales rep for a graphic arts firm; manufacturing supervisor at Manhattanville Faculty, working for a pharmaceutical marking firm and later for UST, a smokeless tobacco firm.

He additionally, although, has an avocation he’d wish to get again to: background appearing, which he had “a lot enjoyable” doing. He has been an additional in all kinds of movies and TV exhibits, courting again to 1 gig in 1980 when he was a school pupil after which his subsequent, 2012’s “Hope Springs,” the Meryl Streep-Tommy Lee Jones film that was shot in Stonington.

When he was on the set of “Hope Springs,” he was inspired by different extras to submit himself to a few casting corporations as a result of he had a “good look” for this line of labor. 

“(I) have at all times been interested in appearing, however rising up, I used to be too shy to get on stage. With background appearing, there isn’t any strain, particularly when I haven’t got to memorize traces,” mentioned Carley, who makes use of the downtime on set to work on his summary drawing.

Extra lately, he appeared as a jeweler in “Uncut Gems” starring Adam Sandler. And, in a little bit of typecasting, he was a photographer on “Blue Bloods” and “Gossip Woman.”

With COVID, Carley’s background work got here to a halt, however he’d wish to return to that and is happy about the truth that a variety of Hallmark motion pictures have been filmed in Connecticut lately.

Caricatures and celebrities

As a child rising up in Darien, Carley liked politics and drawing political cartoons. On the College of Pennsylvania, he earned levels in fantastic arts and political science.

“Working background has given me a chance to rise up shut and private to celebrities that I draw,” he mentioned.

Even now, he nonetheless does drawing, principally caricatures of celebrities and politicians and surrounded by related quotes. His work has led him to satisfy a few of these well-known people, from Cheryl Tiegs to President George H.W. Bush. He likes to do a caricature of a star after which discover a solution to current it personally to her or him, usually getting a photograph of them collectively.

Carley really drew a few caricatures of Bush fishing, which was one of many former president’s favourite hobbies. Carley managed to get it to his topic through a Bush cousin. Years later, with one other Bush caricature in tow, Carley went to a Memorial Day parade in Kennebunkport, Maine, that Bush at all times attended. When Bush stepped out of his limousine, Carley gave him two caricatures, which included one for spouse Barbara. In each situations, Carley later obtained a thanks be aware from Bush.

“I’ve met I don’t know what number of celebrities via the years,” Carley mentioned. “So once I’m not doing flags, I’m doing caricatures, and once I’m not going that, I’m doing abstracts. These are my three passions.” 

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