Still waving 'Her Flag': Oklahoma artist Marilyn Artus refuses to let coronavirus stop her cross-country project

Marilyn Artus planned to be in Indianapolis on Thursday sewing in front of a live audience.

The visual artist instead was tucked in her snug Oklahoma City home studio running 26 feet of fabric through a sewing machine, although she did still have a live audience watching her — just via Facebook and Instagram.

Oklahoma City artist Marilyn Artus has been traveling to all 36 states that ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution with a goal of completing the project "Her Flag." The collaborative art project will have 36 stripes, each designed by a… — Oklahoma City artist Marilyn Artus has been traveling to all 36 states that ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution with a goal of completing the project "Her Flag." The collaborative art project will have 36 stripes, each designed by a female artist from each of those states. Despite the coronavirus outbreak, Artus hopes to finish the flag by August, the 100th anniversary of the amendment's ratification. She is photographed at Artspace in Deep Deuce on Tuesday, July 2, 2019. [The Oklahoman Archives]

"It's rough to work on anything really large in this space," she said by phone after her first live-stream sewing session. "But it went really well. I've gotten used to talking and sewing."

Since 2017, Artus has been working on "Her Flag," a multiyear, cross-country collaborative art project to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which 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. The state artists are each creating a stripe for "Her Flag," and Artus has been visiting each state, in order of ratification, to sew the stripe onto the larger flag.

But Artus' traveling days came to a halt before she could embark on her 26th trip, as the coronavirus pandemic grounded flights, canceled events and closed landmarks.

"But there was just no way I was not gonna do something, and thankfully because of technologies that we have now, it's not like the pandemic in 1918. You think about that when people didn't have phones or social media or all that. We have it a lot easier," she said. "So, I was going to continue on with it, and I knew there would be people that would want to see it happen. So, it was just kind of a natural progression to move the dog-and-pony show over to social media."

Performance art

After driving more than 22,000 miles last year working on the project, Artus started out 2020 mostly flying in and out of cold-weather states like Maine, North Dakota and South Dakota for safety's sake.

Artus intended the addition of each stripe to be a genuine event. While she does the sewing, the state artist who created the stripe greets attendees, while female performing artists entertain the crowd.

But as the coronavirus pandemic began locking down the country, Artus knew the project would have to be altered, especially if she was going finish "Her Flag" by the actual centennial date.

"The end date is of critical importance: Aug. 18, when the amendment was ratified and legal. That is very important to me. Not for a minute did I think about postponing it," she said.

She was to add the Wyoming stripe Saturday during another live-stream, and she will put on the Nevada stripe at 6 p.m. Monday. Next, she will sew on the New Jersey stripe at noon April 10.

"I'm actually sewing the stripes on the exact date and time I would have done it on the road. So, I'm staying with the schedule ... it's just I'm here instead of there," she said.

Special guest

For her Monday sewing session, Artus is inviting a special guest to perform: Oklahoma singer-songwriter Carter Sampson.