by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Since he was in second grade and got poor grades for his style with the crayon, Chris Flagg has drawn a straight line to his career as a landscape architect and watercolor artist.
“I got a ‘U’ – which stands for unsatisfactory – because I colored outside the lines. Come to think of it, I’ve never stopped,” he said.
Flagg counts quite a few artists in his family tree. His father was the principal violist for the New Orleans Symphony, his grandfather built stringed instruments and great-grandfather was a blacksmith who forged the tools his son used to build violins.
“He was an artist in his own right,” said Flagg.
One of his distant relatives is James Montgomery Flagg. While you probably don’t recognize the name, you’re surely familiar with his most famous work of art: the “Uncle Sam Wants You” poster that was first published in 1917 and used as a recruiting campaign by the U.S. Army throughout both World Wars. Flagg has one of the posters on the wall near his drawing table at his studio on East Forsyth Street.
“I believe drawing skill is innate. I’m not sure you can learn it or teach it,” he said.
When Flagg entered Louisiana State University as a 17-year-old freshman, he already knew what he wanted to do with his life.
“One of the reasons I became a landscape architect is I’ve always loved the artistic side of it,” he said. “I also love the architectural feel of painting and I wanted to be more technically-oriented that I would have been with a career in fine art.”
Many of the watercolors that decorate his studio were originally created for thousands of Christmas cards sent out each holiday season by Reynolds, Smith & Hills, the architectural firm where Flagg worked. He said he took over the assignment while he worked there and was asked to continue the tradition even after he decided to strike out on his own and open his own firm a year-and-a-half ago.
Flagg said RS&H mails more than 10,000 of the greeting cards each year and he gets to sign an additional 1,500 larger prints of the painting that are given as gifts.
He added one of the reasons he most enjoys his chosen career is because it allows him to have a “big picture” view of things in addition to allowing him to create watercolors of things that interest him.
“Landscape architects are trained as planners. It’s one of the few professions that really can dabble in all the aspects from architecture to civil engineering and transportation planning and know how it all fits together. People often ask me how to define landscape architecture. I say it’s everything from the ground up. It’s not just plant materials. It’s how everything works together.”
His goal is to fill his studio with even more watercolors and eventually make it a stop on Downtown Vision, Inc.’s First Wednesday Art Walk. In the meantime, Flagg said he’s happy to be able to design new spaces for people to enjoy.
“I’ve spent 35 years in this profession and I still love to come to work every day. I’m living my dream,” he said.