We were in Italy in 2003, two months after Bush had started the Iraq war. Everywhere we went we saw a lot of antiwar and anti-Bush signs and graffiti and there were peace (PACE) flags. There were so many PACE flags, hanging from balconies and scaffolding, and flying on flag polls that it was a rare to find a street where we couldn't see at least one. That inspired me to paint a series of paintings of Venice: PACE in Venice. There is a PACE flag in every painting, where they were actually flying when I was there.