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(Enlarge) Adam Morales' driftwood construction "Statue of Liberty/Star-Spangled Banner" from 1999 serves as a sort of beacon for "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness," the new group exhibit at at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. (Photo by Dan Meyers)

Like the United States, the exhibits at the American Visionary Art Museum thematically cover a lot of territory. The museum's latest really big show, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness," is a typically sprawling affair.

It's interesting to see how these self-taught artists respond to that general theme. They freely use whatever materials are at hand to celebrate the freedom of expression implicit in the exhibit title.

As with earlier exhibits here, the emphasis is on individual stories that are related in the biographical text panels placed next to the artworks.

It's notable that these individually distinctive artists often are united by their recurring use of such iconic images as the American flag and the Statue of Liberty.

Among the most impressive artists is Adam Morales, a Louisiana carpenter who collected driftwood from a swamp and carefully joined it together to make a lofty construction titled "Statue of Liberty/Star-Spangled Banner" (1999).

The twisting pieces of wood seen here retain their individuality, but now share a collective identity. The driftwood is left in its natural state, encouraging you to appreciate every crack and variation in wood grain; however, the driftwood-constructed American flag is painted, making it fly all the more assertively next to the Statue of Liberty.

Morales' working method exemplifies how self-taught artists often have a close connection to the rural landscape. This artist is firmly rooted to his Louisiana swamps, if you will, and his Statue of Liberty adapts to its environment as readily as the original statue located in New York harbor.

Other artists in the exhibit address their American identity somewhat differently, because their personal stories involve putting down new roots in a new country.

The most historically striking example here is Andrew Romanoff, who has the distinction of being the grand-nephew of Czar Nicholas II.

After the Russian Revolution deposed the monarchy in 1917, the last Russian czar and his immediate family were killed. Surviving members of the extended royal family fled abroad. Andrew Romanoff was born in London in 1923. His childhood friends included the princess who would become Queen Elizabeth II. He joined the British Navy, later came to New York City, and currently is a businessman living north of San Francisco.

Romanoff's "The Story of My Childhood" (2004-2005) is a 15-panel series of autobiographical images made by applying watercolor pigments to clear pieces of plastic whose slightly shrunken appearance is the result of deliberately baking them in an oven. The pictorial imagery has a childlike simplicity, and the unusual technical method makes images including the Statue of Liberty look like they come from an old book of memories.

Romanoff, who attended the press preview for this exhibit, bears a strong physical resemblance to the late czar. Holding a ceremonial loaf of bread presented to him by a local Russian Orthodox church, he was a dignified presence as he spoke with reporters about his change of address from Europe to America.

Not every chapter in American history is a happy one, of course, and this point forcefully comes across in Georgia minister Leroy Almon's painted bas-relief wood carving "Southern History" (1995). Its three carved panels depict a white crowd watching the lynching of two black men, the black victims of a church bombing, and white policemen turning fire hoses and snarling dogs on black civil rights marchers. Almon died in 1997, but his sculpted statement survives.

True to its expansive tendencies, the exhibit does not stay within U.S. borders. Its international expressions include several paintings by Ala Bashir, the former personal physician to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. This London-based artist's paintings depict emaciated figures and birds within a ravaged landscape.

That troubled part of the world also inspired the anonymous Afghan weaver whose wool rug titled "Weapons and Big Kalashnikov" has patterned images of guns, tanks and bombs.

Threats to freedom do not respect political borders, so it's appropriate that one of the most resonant artworks was made in the southwestern United States by a Navajo artist, Caroline Bitsui. Her wool rug depicting the World Trade Center, "United We Stand," includes the commemorative date of Sept. 11, 2001. In her own way, she remembers that tragic event and our patriotic response to it.

"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" remains until Sept. 5, 2010 at the American Visionary Art Museum, at 800 Key Highway in Baltimore. Call 410-244-1900 or go to www.avam.org.

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