Artists Registry

911 : Memorial to 343 Firefighters Andie Scott

'911' depicts the portraits of all 343 firefighters who lost their lives while on duty at the World Trade Center on 11 th September 2001. I chose to paint the firefighters because they are a-political, there to save life at a risk to their own. I felt a compelling need to express the 9/11 tragedy in my work.
I started to draw the firefighter’s portraits on September 20th 2001, using memorial notices on the web and newspaper articles. It took six months to produce the portrait drawings and paint them onto the canvas.
A thin blue line walks across a canvas to create an image of the firefighters standing shoulder to shoulder, alphabetically, in rows from top left to bottom right. I had been working with this abstract style since 1998, and in this painting the broken lines express loss and grief.

When I visited with the painting to show Firefighters at Duane Street, New York in 2002, I stood silent and humbled as the firefighters kept pointing out their lost friends on the canvas, (while they let my then 2 year old son play in the fire truck). They called friends and more people came to see the painting. I had taken it off the stretcher so that I could bring it on the plane.

The solo firefighter paintings are from the individual portraits I painted of some of the firefighters. I managed to gift one to the Angelini Family. I received this letter shortly afterwards:

Dear Ms. Scott:

Since September 11, 2001 we have all been moved by the tremendous outpouring of support from across the country and around the world. I would like to thank you for sharing your artwork with us, and indeed for showing your solidarity with the fallen in creating this work.

I will be forwarding your beautiful artwork to the wife of Ff. Joseph Angelini Sr,. The Angelini family was the only FDNY family that lost a firefighter father and a firefighter son on September 11, 2002. Your artwork of Joseph Angelini Sr. will, I am sure, be of comfort to this family.

As we look ahead with hope, know that we are stronger for this expression of support from you.

Sincerely yours,
Evelyn Tesoriero
New York City Fire Department
Family Assistance Unit

911 forms part of 'World Tragedy' a series of my paintings which challenges the way the news and media moves from one tragic situation to another filling us with emotions and a desire to act. The 'sound bites' of the world move on and we are expected to as well. But the memory and emotion of those who have lost family and friends continues.

'World Tragedy' is about making a mark through painting to make sure we do not forget situations that continue to cause that level of distress and outrage that we felt when it was called ‘breaking news’. '911' is the first completed painting. Other works include '1,100 Tokens' an installation of 1100 portraits about the Burmese monks arrested in 2007. Tsunami is 250,00 white lines on an unprimed canvas, painted in 24 hours. Each line represents a person who died in the Tsunami in 2006 in the first 24 hours.

The painting is in oil on linen and measures 18” x 96”. It is difficult to convey the impact of the painting "911" on the website registry of artists as the images are small and this painting quite large. I have included all the drawings I made with each firefighter's name to help show these wonderful men. I hope one day to see "911" on exhibition at the National September 11 Memorial Museum where I believe it belongs.

andie scott, flexitron studio, 46 penton street,London, n1 9qa
andie.scott@btinternet.com 07880911488