Untitled (three palm trees)

Although he was a native of Chicago, cartoonish palm trees pop up everywhere in Ed Flood’s work and they are always recognizable as palm trees by Flood. Moreover, the cheerful non-contrastive colors and their cartoonish form convey the exotic appeal of tropical paradises and, by extension, the potential for escape from everyday reality. (See Smart Museum 2001.213.) He often used lithography as a print medium, which allowed him the possibility both of drawing (to outline and modulate the color areas tonally after printing and before they dried), and of applying even uninflected color in large areas (like a screenprint). In this print, he added glitter in the green and blue areas. (See related works: 2001.210, 2001.212., 2001.215-217.)

Flood shared a love of pop culture as subject matter with his Chicago Imagist colleagues, including Ed Paschke. (See Smart Museum 1998.65.) Together they organized The Non-Plussed Some exhibition in 1968 with Don Baum at the Hyde Park Art Center, which also included Sarah Canright, Robert Guinan and Richard Wetzel. They later merged with Hairy Who artists in 1970 for Marriage Chicago Style, and in 1971 Chicago Antigua (minus Baum) before Flood left for New York around 1972.