The West Finds Its Voice: Meet Scott Lo Baido, Creative Patriot

The easiest art in the world involves mixing and matching these themes: President Bush is an evil repressive moron. Christians are fascist simpletons. Laugh at Southerners. Race and gender issues rule. Corporations are scum. Israel is the source of evil in the universe. Throw in some naked bodies and you're on the cover of the Village Voice and other alternative publications in a jiffy -- 'cause you're fighting the power, man.

But the truly transgressive art looks askance at this conventional wisdom and feeds it back in a fun-house mirror reflection. The most visible, assertive practitioner of this kind of art is Scott Lo Baido, who had a New York show at the Tribute Gallery not far from Ground Zero in the weeks before the 2004 election. Here's one example of his 9-11 themed work, called "The New York Giants," featuring Rudy Guiliani and New York police and firefighters:



And in recent days Lo Baido, who calls himself "the Creative Patriot," started a bold new project that will take him to all 50 states.

On Feb. 22, Lo Baido started his 22,000-mile "Flags Across America" tour to raise money through sponsorships for the Wounded Warrior Project. Lo Baido explains it like this:

I will drive to every single one of our fifty states in this great land, and paint a huge American flag on the rooftop of a building in each of those states. I would also like to shake the hand and personally thank as many of our brave Veterans as possible.

My Dream is to promote patriotism in the grandest way where so many will see. I want to support our troops and welcome them home with an appreciative view from the sky. I would hope that my efforts might inspire others to be Creative Patriots. But most importantly, I will honor the veterans who gave me this creative opportunity and in return, thank them for the greatest gift to civilization…….. FREEDOM!

The project ends in New York on Sept. 8-11.

Lo Baido combines his artwork with a large dose of Abbie Hoffman-like street theater to get his points across. This article from CNN (!) mentions some of his greatest hits, and shows "Have Faith," his one painting guaranteed to cause apoplexy among certain audiences (hint: it involves President Bush and Osama bin Laden):

LoBaido, 38, was arrested in 1999 after throwing horse manure at the exterior of the Brooklyn Museum of Art to protest its display of a painting of the Virgin Mary festooned with elephant dung.

"I'm expressing myself creatively," he said as police led him away that day.

Last year, LoBaido was arrested for hanging a large American flag on an awning outside the French Consulate as a sign of protest for what he considered France's contempt for the U.S.-led war in Iraq. He is on one-year probation.