Note: “Flutterings” — notes from the editor on our last meeting — is a regular feature in The Vexilloid Tabloid.
July Flutterings You Need to Know
In our July meeting, hosted by Ted Kaye, 16 PFA members enjoyed a lively 3+-hour evening of flags and other wide-ranging topics. As the host, Ted led the introductions and moderated the discussion.
John Schilke exulted in seeing a photo of a Roerich flag displayed on SE Stephens St.) and gave a brief description of its creator and its purpose—to protect cultural sites in wartime—(see VT #20).
Michael Orelove gave updates on his flags-for-educational-purposes solicitations, showed off some flags and burgees, and passed around the results of his writing off for state seals—40 of 50 states have responded so far.
David Koski described his project to facilitate flag image construction using Adobe InDesign, with layers for standard flag components—he showed resulting example flags.
Ted Kaye led a discussion of the Confederate Battle Flag controversy, using actual flags to illustrate the history of the CSA’s flag use. He has been very actively giving interviews in the past two weeks at the local and national levels on that and other subjects (see The Confederate Flag Flap).
Lorraine Bushek, joining us for the first time, described her work as an artist, including the 3rd-place finalist in the 2009 Oregon flag redesign effort.
Ken Dale reflected on the symbolism of the U.S. Capitol building—whose construction continued even during the Civil War.
Scott Mainwaring noted that cellphone cases featuring the Portland flag orient upside-down when the phone is held vertically. He created a corrected version on Zazzle.com. He has also been experimenting with giving digitally generated US flags a “hand-made” feel, with “randomly-perturbed” stars and colors.
Max Liberman consulted with the assembled members on agenda items for the 24th general assembly of FIAV in Sydney in September; he and Ted were named delegate and alternate. He then shared some of the thousands of submissions for a new flag for New Zealand—the good and the bad.
Nathaniel Mainwaring, who enters 4th grade this fall, updated us on his Minecraft-based flag work, featuring zombie pig-men.
Casey Sims described the development of his personal flag, and closed his presentation with a song on his guitar.
Patrick Genna displayed a recent Goodwill acquisition—a large flag of Antigua & Barbuda and distributed a fact sheet about it.
Robert Izatt described the crowdfunding campaign for the Cascadian Flag-Making Cooperative.
David Ferriday showed his latest flag-based art and noted that a recent local flag store’s ad depicts the Portland flag upside-down…
Alexander Baretich shared some of his recent designs, including the Cascadia nautical flag (see article, p. 6), religious flags, and another bio-regional flag—that of Danubia.
Dennis Stephens lauded the recent Roman Mars TED Talk on city flag design: “Why city flags may be the worst-designed think you’ve never noticed” (ted.com), and showed the flag stickers on his laptop documenting his travels.
The meeting started at 7:00 and adjourned at 10:20, reflecting the host’s poor timekeeping ability.
Our next meeting will be at the home of Larry Snyder on Sept. 10th. Patrick took the Portland Flag Association flag for him—the customary task of the next host.
Portland Flag Association 