“I started using nautical signal flags as part of a bicentennial flag,” said Damariscotta artist Franciska Needham. “I wanted something to symbolize 1976, so I did the numerals 1976 in fabric signal flags embroidered in a satin stitch.” International Signal flags are codes for the alphabet and numbers.
That bicentennial flag led Needham to make other three-dimensional American flags in addition to her paintings of seascapes, garden scenes and portraits. She made an American flag symbolizing Maine using pine cones for stars and bark for the stripes and she made a couple of flags using computer parts for the components: keyboard keys for stripes and the internal parts of the computer lightly tinted blue for the blue field. She used metal for the stars.
But the flag she found the most fun to make was made of plastic. “It was lighthearted,” she said. The blue field was Sunday New York Times protective wrappers woven together in a basket weave; the white stripes came from found pieces of white and clear plastic; the red plastic came from developed 35 mm film, combs, hair rollers, pens, and other found objects. She wanted the use of plastic to represent America’s sense of humor and said, “Not all art is so serious.” A flag that combined seriousness with humor was composed of objects from the medical profession: gauze became the stripes, the stars she cut from boxes that housed medicine and on the center of each star she placed an aspirin tablet. The flag sits on a mahogany base, representing a doctor’s office desk. She framed that flag with tongue depressors.
“This series over the years led to the International Signal flags because of my life here on the coast,” she said. She found the key to the signal flags at the library in a book on navigation. She was studying how to get messages out in code and started wondering what else it took to keep a ship going, and she remembered she’d seen lines being thrown to people on docks, so it wasn’t much of a jump for her to want to include sailor’s knots in her art. She learned how to make the knots from The Ashley Book of Knots, the same book used by writer Annie Proulx in her novel, The Shipping News. The knots were so hard to make, Needham tried to hire a fisherman to make some for her in winter, but nothing ever came of it.
A tall, slender construction on variations of white reflecting on white and shades of off-white nautical flags that spell out LIGHT she decorated with sailor’s knots made of hemp, twine, cotton, and various types of synthetic fibers. She likes the idea of tying in the nautical signal flags with marine ropes. She finds the different types, thicknesses, and colors of ropes in hardware and marine supply stores.
Right now, she’s gathering heart-shaped stones, printed matter and her own artwork of hearts along with knots to make a more light-hearted construction on LOVE, and is thinking about making one on SOS. She’s also made signal flag constructions using people’s names, initials and company logos.
“Something So Dastardly”
Needham composed her tribute to 9/11, entitled AMERICA 9/11/2001 WHY, while driving to Maine the spring following the terrorist attacks. Many creative people find they can compose music, art and stories while walking or driving. Somehow, having the left side of the brain preoccupied with something as mundane as walking or driving sets the right, or creative, side of the brain free. Einstein said he got his best ideas when he was out walking. At any rate, Needham planned the work over that day of driving.
A native New Yorker, she said, “I was angry that someone would come into my neighborhood and do something so dastardly” as the terrorist attacks.
After arriving in Damariscotta, she gathered the parts of the piece, then began to build it. “The composition of the towers was done in the original signal flag colors,” she said. The signal flags that make up the tower on the left hand side spell, vertically from top to bottom, AMERICA. The flags that make up the tower on the right hand side spell out 9 1 1 2 0 0 1. Each tower required seven flags. She explained that the components added to each flag represent what people either wore or had in their offices that day: buttons, zippers, fabric, money, film, telephone and computer wires. She used silver spray paint to represent the steel of the buildings; the overlay of cement on the original flag colors represents the destruction of the buildings. The gold-leaf background reflects the sun setting in New York after the day of destruction. “The square sun made of Maine mica and a part of a NY pin symbolizes that we will never be the same again,” she said, adding, “the two black Lucite bands beneath the towers represent mourning, and the black-on-black signal flags on the Lucite spell out the word WHY.”
Needham’s flag art requires woodwork to stabilize the weight of the flags and their components. The technical construction of each flag requires a great deal of planning because the artist incorporates two things each time she makes a signal flag piece: the use of the word or words spelled out in the flags and the nautical knots. Trying to figure out how to make the flags for the 9/11 piece was terrible, she said. “It was hell.”
Needham considers AMERICA 9/11/2001 WHY to be one of the most important pieces she has done. When asked why, she replied, “I think it requires the viewer to think independently of the work because it’s very subtle. I think it’s because of the symbolism that out of ashes people will rise again, and the emotions that are connected with the onslaught of the towers being taken down gave Americans a lot to think about and mourn. A lot of artists across the country responded to the attacks,” she said. “It still lives in them.” She tied that artistic response to the mourning artwork, done primarily by women, that followed the death of George Washington and said she felt it was a statement to the heartfelt emotions on the passing of America’s first president.
“This piece makes a statement that despite these buildings coming down, we’re all still standing, and it’s the good parts in us that make this so,” she said. “I saw it, and we’re still feeling that. It changed a lot of our lives. I think we’ve all become a little better.”
She went on to say, “This particular piece was philosophically doing a lot of different things. To compose something that is going to affect people is what I consider a serious piece.” After a pause, she said, “The thing that amazes me about this piece is the symbolism and religion: out of the ashes, the gold sunlight, the clear Lucite. It illustrates man’s ability to question and hope.”
To reach Needham, e-mail her at franciskaart@juno.com or call 207-563-1227.