Talk With Pete

I discussed with Pete my ideas to manipulate the gay pride flag using inspiration from artists such as Jasper Johns and Gerhard Richter. His first thoughts were what are the connotations of Richter's work? How would painting in this fashion using the pride colours portray my feelings? On discussing this I realised that if I were to paint using Richter's work as inspiration to manipulate my pride colours then it would have connotations of destroying the flag. It would appear destructive and angry and wouldn't be portraying my feelings of celebration and excitement. Is using this a good idea?  How else can the pride flag be manipulated in a more bold and expressive, less destructive way? Shapes? Paper? Layering?