Artists to add Ky. stripe to flag celebrating 19th Amendment

Artist Marilyn Artus sews a stripe to 'Her Flag,' a travellng work in progress that celebrates the passage of the 19th Amendment. (Brett Deering)

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) - A piece of art that is a work in progress will stop in Frankfort later this month to celebrate the 100th anniversary of passage of the 19th Amendment.

The work is called “Her Flag,” which will make its way through the capitals of the 36 states that ratified the amendment. At each stop, founder and artist Marilyn Artus, of Oklahoma City, sews a stripe to the rest of the flag, created by a woman in that state.

A press release about the project said that the project is her “love letter” to those who helped bring about the 19th Amendment and that Artus uses the flag as a way to encourage women to vote, a right that many fought for 100 years ago.

“I am on a mission to make sure that every woman I come in contact with over this 14 month adventure is registered to vote and gets out in 2020 to put that registration to use,” Artus said in the release. “But celebrating this anniversary isn’t just about women. This was a fight. It took Democrats and Republicans and Men and Women and Black, White and Native Americans working together to get this amendment passed. Her Flag is a not a political piece of work, rather a powerful, positive symbol used to educate and celebrate this truly momentous American anniversary.”

Kentucky’s stripe will be the 23rd added to the flag, as the commonwealth was the 23rd to ratify the amendment. The addition is scheduled for Feb. 12 in the House of Representatives Chamber in the Old State Capitol at noon. Kentucky’s stripe is made by Linda Erzinger. The Women’s Suffrage Centennial Chorus will perform.

Erzinger, who is based in Louisville, said she saw a call for the project over a year ago and jumped on board. She said much of her past work is about celebrating women and making assemblages of "society's discards," she said.

"A lot of my work is about women's empowerment and it was just one more step forward for women's empowerment, to celebrate our accomplishments," Erzinger said.

For Kentucky's stripe, she made one small assemblage piece and then photographed it to repeat over and over. She spent many hours working on the final piece. Some close-up photos of elements are created from her past work and items included unused or expired blood tubes filled with materials like fabric, Mardi Gras beads, plastic pieces from sponge curlers and wax paper from the back of panty liners.

The stripe also has the phrases "Women Vote" and "Elect Women Now" on it. Erzinger said she chose the words after seeing other states' stripes and knowing her work would appear toward the end of the flag.

"It's a call to action, not just a celebration of the past," she said. "It's like, 'We need to keep going.' "

The project started in June and will take 14 months to complete. At the end, the flag will be 18 feet tall and 26 feet wide.