A Tribute Takes Root In Dodgingtown

By Kaaren Valenta

While Howard Lasher was attending a memorial service in New York City’s St Patrick’s Cathedral for the victims of the World Trade Center disaster, he felt he had to do something to honor them.

“I lost nine friends,” Mr Lasher said. “It probably was the worst three weeks of my life.”

A broker on the American Stock Exchange, Mr Lasher was in his office at 2 Rector Street, just three blocks from the twin towers, and saw the second plane hit. In the weeks following the tragedy, as he returned to the routine of work, he could not stop thinking about the victims.

“I was watching the color guard at St Patrick’s Cathedral, and decided I have to do something with a flag,” Mr Lasher said. “I recalled the flag painted along the road that goes to Ondine restaurant [in New Fairfield]. But I wanted a living memorial for my friends.”

Mr Lasher called Newtown artist David Merrill, best known locally for the murals he painted in Edmond Town Hall, to enlist his help. The result – a huge American flag painted across six trees on Mr Lasher’s property – greets motorists who drive into the Dodgingtown section of Newtown along Route 302.

 “I met grief face-to-face when I met Howard Lasher,” Mr Merrill explained. “He was so distraught over the tragedy. He wanted a memorial to his colleagues, and I knew that I had to do this.”

Mr Merrill was engrossed in painting a mural in a house in Southbury and had several other commissions also lined up, including a 68-foot mural in a new intermediate school in Shelton, but he put everything aside.

“It was [Mr Lasher’s] concept,” Mr Merrill said this week as he balanced on an extension ladder and painted the final star. “The Friday before last I met him here midafternoon and we walked the property, looking at trees. We finally settled on these trees.”

Painting the flag across six trees presented many challenges.

“It’s an interesting concept because of the spaces between the trees,” Mr Merrill said. “The perspective constantly changes as you walk along. It appears to be in motion.”

As a first step, Mr Merrill used white gesso to paint the entire background and provide a base. He painted partway around each tree, leaving a large section in of the trunk untouched on the opposite side to reduce the risk of harming the trees. Then came the real work. Using dozens of small tubes of artist’s acrylic, he painted each stripe, carefully working the paint into the rough bark.

“It was the most physical project I have ever done, up and down the ladder, up and over the stone wall next to the trees,” he said. “At the end of each day I was exhausted, but while I was working on it I felt a real high. It just came to me as I went along. It was so emotional.”

Mr Merrill said he used a color called cadmium red medium for the stripes, but he added ivory-black to get just the right shade. The blue field is a shade called phthalocyanine blue, but with some ivory-back and some white added; the stars are titanium white.

The project took more than 70 hours.

“I worked nine-hour days, about seven and a half days,” he said on Wednesday. “I was very fortunate that the weather cooperated. Every day was perfect, until today.”

The flag extends a distance of about 13 feet, widening as it stretches toward the road.

“I eyeballed it to get the height,” Mr Merrill said. “I was constantly up and down the ladder to see what it looked like.”

Each day Mr Merrill’s wife, Beryl, who works in the town tax collector’s office, brought lunch for her husband. One day she took a vacation day off to help him paint the stripes.

“We were worried that the weather might not hold, but it did,” he said. “I just have a little touch-up work to do. Next spring I will look at it to decide whether we need to put varnish over it to make it easier to clean, or whether washing will be enough.”

Mr Lasher, who was interviewed by telephone, will be home this weekend to see the finished project. But when he saw it half-completed last weekend, he knew he had made the right decision.

“I planted a multitude of bulbs, daffodils and tulips, at the base of the trees, so it should be beautiful in the spring,” Mr Lasher said. “The memorial that David created has really helped me. After he started painting it, I think it was the first weekend I didn’t cry.”