The Oklahoman | Article | Brandy McDonnell

OKC artist Marilyn Artus to sew on the final stripe of 'Her Flag' Tuesday, the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment

Tuesday is the official 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and Oklahoma City artist Marilyn Artus is celebrating by completing a three-year artistic mission called "Her Flag."

As previously reported, Artus has been working since 2017 on "Her Flag," a multiyear, cross-country collaborative art project to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Proposed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified on Aug. 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote.

The 19th Amendment needed to be ratified by 36 states to be adopted, and for "Her Flag," Artus has been working with women artists in each of those 36 states to create the stripes for the massive artwork.

She is traveling to Nashville, Tennessee, where she will sew on the final stripe, created by Tennessee artist Higgins Bond, in an event Tuesday at the historic War Memorial Auditorium.

The event will be live-streamed at 11 a.m. Tuesday at www.facebook.com/herflag2020.

"Her Flag" will be hoisted up on a rigging, and Artus will take the audience through each stripe and spend some time discussing the 36 pieces of art that were made by women across the country for the final project.

The project has been chronicled for an upcoming documentary, for which the first teaser trailer was recently released, along with a short film about Artus' participation in the 2020 Rose Parade. As previously reported, Artus was among 100 women and men who walked with a float celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment in the Jan. 1 parade. She officially represented Oklahoma as one of the 36 states to ratify the amendment into law.

The completed "Her Flag" - which measures a whopping 18 feet by 26 feet - will be first displayed at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Women's Equality Day, Aug. 26. That date is also the centennial anniversary when the 19th Amendment was officially enrolled into the U.S. Constitution.

Look for my upcoming interview with Artus about the completion of the "Her Flag" project. For more information, go to www.herflag.com.