Making the Ultimate Sacrifice

"Old Glory was rebooted by Americans. His book documents alternative flag imagery from around the nation, as well as his own creations. Despite its grim origins, it is a demonstration of the playful, creative American spirit. Carley's enthusiasm and attention to detail would make him the dream guest for Dr. Sheldon Cooper's 'Fun with Flags' podcast on 'The Big Bang Theory.' The man loves a pun. Mention of flag stamps inspires 'America wasn't licked after 9/11.' A van is 'a vanguard of patriotism.' A stack of bales in Newtown was like 'finding a needle in a haystack!' A Derby lawn is 'a real grass act!'
 
He's photographed homes painted as flags (starting with one in Kent), as well as cars (including a '66 Pontiac Bonneville in Darien and a '74 VW bus in Fairfield), silos, corn, hydrants, planes, boats, tanks, garbage trucks (from Norwalk, bearing the words 'Bin Laden's new Home' above the compacter), and ... people.
 Carley is excited to reveal that final canvas when I inquire about tattoos. He flips to pages 66-67 to spotlight Sam, a native of Tonga whose entire face is tattooed with a vertical flag surrounded by phrases such as 'America To Me is Heaven' (on his chin).He can't resist: 'His patriotism is not skin deep.' I could argue that having the stars over the left eye instead of the right is a violation of flag etiquette, but I don't think the framers of the U.S. Flag Code had Sam in mind.

The real thread through Carley's book isn't the flags, but the people who display them. America is, after all, the cradle of jazz, and seeing Betsy Ross' original artwork reinterpreted is in that spirit. His book introduces us to people such as Josephine 'the Jug Lady,' who kept trucks and kids off her lawn by cloaking it with a flag display of a thousand milk and kitty litter jugs. Or Bubba, in Iowa, who painted a 50-ton rock with the flag, the Twin Towers, Pentagon and an eagle.

As our reporters have documented Carley's pursuits over the years, stories have reported a rising number of states he's visited for photos. He's now at 45. I'm curious which stars on the flag he's still missing. Alaska, Hawaii and New Mexico are reasonable. I'm shocked when he mentions California. 'California? Please tell me the other one isn't New Jersey,' I bellow. California is expensive, he explains. And yes, Jersey is well represented in the book. But he says he'll need a map to remember the missing state (it turns out to be Nevada). And he has no plans to chase American flags in other countries ('I've got enough to cover here').

Carley has become a nontraditional journalist in tracking sources, crisscrossing the country by car while consuming Big Macs for personal fuel. In the meantime, he nourished his creative side at home by transforming the likes of badminton birdies and cardboard milk containers into flag tributes. 

The flag will continue to reinvent itself, just like the Americans it represents."

-John Breunig, New Haven Register, 9/11/2021, editorial page editor with Hearst Connecticut Media Group for nine dailies