What is this flag?

February 28, 2007 10:12 AM

Please help me identify the flag in this Kinkade painting.

Kinkade's painting of Lombard Street in San Francisco, while devoid of any pride flags, does feature a strange flag I do not recognize. It looks similar to an Israel flag, with the horizontal blue bars at the top and bottom, but features a circled cross in the center, rather than a star of David. Here is a scan

Thanks!

posted by Durhey to Media & Arts (19 answers total)

Looks like a Christian Methodist flag.
posted by matkline at 11:13 AM on February 28, 2007

That is an odd one -- could it be a corporate flag -- say, of a hotel?
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 11:14 AM on February 28, 2007

never mind
posted by matkline at 11:16 AM on February 28, 2007

Outside the Armenian chapel at the Tomb of Mary in the Kidron Valley in Jerusalem, I saw a white flag with a dark blue border and a cross on the center. I couldn't get a good look at the cross but it appeared to be the so-called Cross of St. James, apparently a common emblem in the Armenian church.

Joe McMillan, 14 April 2000 from Flags of the World (now I can't find the page.)

I think it's actually a made-up flag by Kinkade. I looked on a variety of sites on flags and my hobby is vexillogy and I cannot find anything like that flag. The cross looks to me more like a Budded or Bottany Cross than a Saint James Cross, but Joe's description is the closest that gets to the graphic.
posted by parmanparman at 11:19 AM on February 28, 2007

I looked at a jpeg of the original painting, and it looks like the flag is in front of someone's house, so strike my hotel suggestion.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 11:21 AM on February 28, 2007

I think it's the Stevenson house that they say used to be a convent..
posted by zeoslap at 11:33 AM on February 28, 2007

Nah nix that it's close though :)
posted by zeoslap at 11:35 AM on February 28, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers so far. Quite mysterious it seems.

After a second look, the stripes on the Israel flag are not on the very edges as they seem to be on this flag, so it's probably unrelated.

Here is a link to the entire painting if it helps.
posted by Durhey at 11:44 AM on February 28, 2007

This Christian Churches of God flag is similar.
posted by R. Mutt at 12:09 PM on February 28, 2007

This leads to the question, what are some good symbol databases with symbol interpretations/connotations listed? Arranged by shape, so one can browse based on a symbol seen? I saw an interesting tattoo the other day, but I can't figure out where to look it up. Maybe this should be its own AskMe. (It was three dots in an equilateral triangle on the inside of someone's wrist, s.t. the triangle was pointing toward his elbow.)
posted by lostburner at 2:11 PM on February 28, 2007

Symbols.com might help with the tattoo, although on a quick search I don't find the one you describe.
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:56 PM on February 28, 2007

LobsterMitten: thanks for the link. I don't suppose it means "ergo" in this context, though that would be a pretty cool tat for a scientist or mathematician.
posted by lostburner at 4:49 PM on February 28, 2007

I've been looking around for an hour to try and find an answer for you. I couldn't find anything resembling that flag. I Googled and Wikipedia'd the cross, the colors, the city of San Francisco, Lombard Street, and a bunch of other seemingly related tidbits. I also checked Flags of the World, where I eventually found the page that parmanparman was referring to.

The only thing that might be a lead is that I believe the cross is a bottony or budded cross. But why Kinkade would have used that, I have no clue.
posted by susiepie at 5:07 PM on February 28, 2007

There are a couple of flag databases that let you search by the flag's elements here and here. But if it's a coat of arms, it would be very hard to track down. Wish I could have been more help. Puzzling.
posted by laskagirl at 6:03 PM on February 28, 2007

These sorta look like the house, no? Is this the view? Anyone live in SF who might wanna print out a picture and mosey on ova?
posted by nevercalm at 8:12 PM on February 28, 2007

nevercalm, that's pretty obviously it -- Lombard is a pretty famous SF location.
posted by dhartung at 8:15 PM on February 28, 2007

It is???!!!1112!? I'm aware of that, but I'd never paid any particular attention to the houses, have you? It looks similar enough, but not exact. It's more creepy to me that he might put what looks to be similar to other "xtian power" flags on someone's actual house. But who knows? Maybe a little higher up the street is the exact house? I'm only interested because, frankly, the guy creeps me out.

Why the hell am I explaining myself?
posted by nevercalm at 8:23 PM on February 28, 2007

Response by poster: Though the flag itself may remain a mystery, this is veyr helpful info nonentheless. I'm sure there was a reason he put that flag there, and yeah, it is kind of weird that it's somebody's real-life house.
posted by Durhey at 11:19 AM on March 1, 2007

I think it's actually a made-up flag by Kinkade.

I wouldn't doubt it, he probably made-up a Christian flag based on the Israeli. He does stuff like that all the time -- for example, he moved a Cable Car into Fisherman's Wharf.
posted by Rash at 2:50 PM on March 1, 2007