Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The Flag! Finally.

Right after 9/11 flags were everywhere and artists all over the country were doing their take on Old Glory. I thought about it for a couple of days, but then decided...."nah...I'm just not gonna go there." Everyone was doing something with the flag and I just didn't want to do what everyone was doing. Problem was in those couple of days I had gotten an idea...an idea that just wouldn't let me go...and it involved a flag. I had asked myself what would I do if I did a flag tribute that would honor the flag, but honor the spirit of the women that were the heart of my work...and where I could stay true to my signature style.  I remember imagining 50 women for the 50 stars and wondering if I could do it in a way where the images wouldn't be too small. Only way to do that was to make the flag pretty good size. "Nah...I'm just not gonna go there."  Or so I thought.

But the next thing I knew I was on Ebay trying to track down red ticking and figuring out how to get a whole bunch of pictures on one piece of transfer paper. I cleared off the one big table I had in my studio at the time and started to go there. When I saw the flag begin to come to life, I knew this was going to be a special piece. I called my friends at The Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Museum in Ft. Worth and told them what I was making and asked them if they wanted first shot at it when it was done. To make a long story short...I finished it in 3 days, sent them the not-exactly-crisp pic you see here and the first"The Women-The Flag" found a home in the permanent collection of the museum in September 2002. It was unveiled at a special ceremony they had on the one year anniversary of that fateful fall day and as far as I know it hangs there today. I have made a few since then and they hang in collections all over the country.

But...I have never taught a class on making the flag....until now.

So take a peek at the class info on my workshop site.  There are several versions of the flag that you can do. At the moment the Flag Workshop is only being offered here in Colorado, but you might be able to twist my arm to have it on the road too. The class is very limited in size as each person needs a 6' table to themselves for this very cool project.


You will also see info on a version of Collage Camp  where I will show you how to hand-tint your photo transfers.

To order a flag custom made for you....visit the Flag section at www.lipstickranch.com.

Thanks for checking this out gang.  Love ya. Mean it.