The RedWhite+Black Project:

Born Out of Need

I am an artist, a painter and maker, living in and working out of a decommissioned school in rural western Iowa. My first cancer in 2001 prompted me to take art seriously and make art seriously. And now I am a two-time cancer survivor.

In October 2025 I began a search for a different kind of art series, and importantly, a less physically intensive one during my recovery from prostate cancer surgery. This change of course coincided with needing a reprieve from the steady drone of negative news and existential dread. I needed a way to heal, a way to work in what I call “positive space”, and a way to give back.

I felt the answer was work that tapped into my past involvement with the calming, repetitive, and formulaic processes of screen printing. Not serigraphs, but paintings as a series, each one unique but identified by the process.

The result is RedWhite+Black, a variant of my Tarpaulin Series, which derive from tapestries and flags and tarps. Le Corbusier called tapestries “nomadic murals” and these are intentionally uniform, practical, lightweight, and mobile.

They also help me give back. For the life of this project, I am donating 20% of the sale price of this series to food banks and pantries, starting in Carroll County, Iowa where I live and have my studio practice, and hopefully expanding from there.

Tech specs:

• About 44 inches high by 12 inches wide.
• Painted on unstretched free-hanging canvas.
• Two grommets at the top for easy hanging with small nails or whatever you like.
• Ships rolled in a box.
• $99 each (and free shipping.)

Onward.
Lee Shiney, Dec. 2025