Name: Peter Max

Occupation: Artist

Residence: New York City

Why I chose this picture: I started painting the American flag, and I painted it with not the right amount of stripes; just four or five red stripes.  In the area where the stars are, there are four stars.  So it’s abstract.  It’s symbolic.  It looks like a flag, of course, but if you counted the stars you’d say, “Hey, there’re only four stars.”  Because I wanted them to be larger and more painterly.