The Oklahoman | Article | Brandy McDonnell

A self-described "suffrage nerd," Marilyn Artus wanted to commemorate the 100th anniversary of American women earning the right to vote in a big way.

So, the Oklahoma City artist created a plan out of whole cloth — 18 feet by 26 feet and 25 pounds of it — and after three years of sewing, pivoting and streaming, those plans are unfurling right on time.

And across the exterior of a presidential library.

"I'm having really weird moments of like, 'Holy cow, this thing I've worked on for so long is finally done.' It feels really good," she said. "I think it's a pretty incredible finished piece ... and it's so cool that it hangs on this day of really important history."

Artus' completed "Her Flag" — a cross-country, collaborative project to celebrate the women's suffrage movement — makes its official debut Wednesday at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Wednesday is Women's Equality Day, which commemorates the Aug. 26, 1920, adoption of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

"I want to raise awareness about women's history and women's role in our democracy. So many people weren't really aware of how hard the suffrage fight was and didn't know about women of color's role. ... It was a full-on fight. It came up so many times. It was voted on so many times and failed over and over and over again. It just shows that you can't give up on your dreams — and you can't give up on our government," Artus said.

Collaborative commemoration

Proposed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified on Aug. 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment secured the first voting rights for women on the national level. It needed to be ratified by 36 states to be adopted, and in 2017, Artus began work on "Her Flag" with a call for women artists from each of those 36 states to devise a stripe honoring the seven-decade struggle for women's suffrage.

More than 300 artists applied for the 36 slots, she said.

"I think your life gets magical when you collaborate with other people," Artus said. "We had a really great pool of artists, and they were instructed to keep it positive and celebratory and consider Native women, women of color, the bigger picture. I encouraged them to look at their own state history and dig in, and lots of them got really into that. Then, they were assigned either a red or pink majority color to use."

Last summer, she embarked on a series of 17 road trips planned over 14 months to visit all 36 ratifying states. While she sewed on the stripe, the state artist who created it would greet attendees, while women performing artists would entertain the audience. The collaborative artwork began to evolve with the addition of each stripe.

"There's so many different art styles on this flag," Artus said. "They're so diverse, yet they work together really, really beautifully."

But the Oklahoma native's traveling days suddenly came to a halt in March as the coronavirus outbreak grounded flights, canceled events and closed landmarks. She quickly shifted to live-streaming the addition of each stripe via social media.

"This was my full-time job working on this project ... and then COVID hit and I had to completely kind of adjust how I was going to do this. So, I wasn't going to be able to travel to all the states. I got to 25 of them — got to Washington — before I had to go home and live-stream," she said.

“There was no way I wasn't going to finish this project, so we just had to adjust to the world we're living in now — and I think we all did a pretty good job of doing that and getting it done."

Final road trip

But Artus was determined to make the final "Her Flag" sewing trip in person. She was at Nashville's historic War Memorial Auditorium on Aug. 18 — 100 years to the day after Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment — to add artist Higgins Bond's last stripe.

"It is definitely weird thinking there also was a global pandemic when ... this amendment was getting ratified," Artus said. "When I started it, I felt like I jumped out an airplane with no parachute because the money was scary. We had a real successful crowd-funding campaign; we got assorted grants. ... We were planning on launching a huge crowdfunding campaign early this year, and the world imploded. There was just no way we could do that. So, I had to hope for grant money, and we got an incredible life-saving grant from Oklahoma Humanities."

Oklahoma Humanities Executive Director Caroline Lowery said "Her Flag" celebrates the historical significance of the 19th Amendment while inspiring new thought.

“The 'Her Flag' project juxtaposes the extraordinary progress women have made towards equality against the enduring reality that the work remains unfinished," Lowery said in an email.

After a quick stop in her home state to have "Her Flag" hemmed and finished at OKC's Rainbow Pennant, Artus left Monday for Arkansas, where she will participate in the "Her Flag" unveiling Wednesday at the Clinton Presidential Center. The Clinton Foundation is hosting the first of several Zoom conversations Artus has scheduled with organizations around the country.

"In a way, it's not really done yet, because now is the journey to get it displayed. ... I really want it hanging in Washington, D.C., when we're voting for president," she said. "I've talked to the national suffrage committee ... and they love the project. They're telling me they can absolutely find a place for it to be displayed in Washington."

In addition, the teaser trailer for a planned "Her Flag" documentary debuted last week.

"My absolute dream is for it to be permanently installed in the Smithsonian at the women's history museum that's not built yet. We've been talking about this museum forever. But with more women getting involved in running for office and being elected, hopefully we can finally get some funding to build the women's history museum in Washington, D.C.," she said.

"I really want people to look at the suffrage era. ... There's still things that are happening in the country that make voting hard for lots of people. ... That's why we've gotta keep an eye on it and always fighting for every American to have a chance to vote."

'Her Flag' virtual unveiling

Oklahoma City artist Marilyn Artus will participate in the virtual unveiling of and a conversation about the completed "Her Flag" project at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Clinton Foundation will host the Zoom event, and people can register at www.clintonfoundation.org/get-involved/take-action/attend-an-event/her-flag-display-clinton-center.

For more information on "Her Flag," go to www.herflag.com.