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To be human is to forget. I learned this a couple of years ago while listening to an interview with Ramy Youssef, where he mentioned that the arabic word for human (insan) is the root of the arabic word for forgetfulness (nasiyan). I haven’t forgotten this idea since.
But I seem to forget just about everything else. I can stand forget where I placed something or what I did last weekend. I can’t stand the process of constantly forgetting and relearning the same life lessons. As my memory fades, I’ve noticed a growing presence of reminders in my work.
These reminders take the form of symbols or sigils that I can repeatedly draw and meditate on. They are simple which makes them easier to remember. A sigil is a symbolic representation of a goal or desire. I made this sigil to represent the idea of “commitment to craft,” and it’s the symbol that I draw, use as a signature, and reflect on most:
In my art practice, I’ve been creating reminders in the form of flags. I love everything about flags. Flags are symbolic representations of identities, ideas, things we want to remember, and things we wish to communicate. Flags belong outside, for people to see. They are composed of colors and shapes. They come alive with sun and wind. I drew my first flag drawings about a year ago:
Some of these flags are literal, some are silly. The first flag I drew was a flag for blueberries. There’s also a flag for new moss, a flag for taste buds, and a flag for bacteria. Some of them are more about color and shape relationships than they are about ideas.
Many of these flags are emotional, and that’s the type of flag I’m most interested in. I’ve been calling them emotional flags. Emotional flags are symbolic representations of ideas and emotional states I wish to remember.
I drew a ton of emotional flags during my residency at Salmon Creek Farm this summer because I was learning so much and didn’t want to forget any of it. For our final show on the land, I installed about 65 flag sketches around the garden to represent their potential as seeds for growth.
I left them there for a few days, and the snails collaborated:
I also experimented with making flags out of wood:
It’s been about a year since I drew those first flags. While 2D and wooden flags were important explorations, I’ve finally realized that these symbolic combinations of shapes and colors come to life best in fabric form, animated by sun and wind:
Let’s Draw an Emotional Flag
Set a timer for ten minutes (or longer!) and journal about or list ideas and emotions you wish to remember. Some prompts to get you started: What is a life lesson you recently learned? What is your intention for the coming year? What are your desires for your future? What is an emotional state you’d like to inhabit more often? What is an idea you’ve come across that has been echoing in your mind?
Once you’ve identified ideas and emotions you wish to remember, draw out flag-shaped symbolic designs for each emotion/idea. Shapes and symbols are typically simplified for flags. Good Flag, Bad Flag provides examples of, you guessed it, good and bad flag designs. But there is no such thing good or bad emotional flag design. The idea is to just keep it simple so it is replicable and easily identifiable.
Add color! Flags are often 2-3 colors.
Display your flag somewhere you’ll see it often, like on your bathroom mirror or front door. Bonus points if you display your flag in a window or outside so others can see it too.
Optional: If you have any level of sewing skills, make a proper flag out of fabric!
If you make a flag, even if it’s just a sketch, please share a picture in the comments! I’d love to see.
Thanks for reading! I’m an independent freelance artist, writer, and illustrator. If you liked this post, one of the biggest ways you can support my work is by subscribing, sharing, or hitting the like button. If you’d like to check out more of my work, here’s my website! I occasionally and begrudgingly post on Instagram.
@Allie Sullberg 💙
Beautiful