Artist Biography Flagg Family

After 1999, the Dee Flagg collection, then at the Buffalo Museum of America, was moved and expanded to the new White Mountain location near Heber/Overgaard, Arizona before finally returning to Scottsdale in 2007 with the relocation and expansion of the Bison Museum to the new corporate location of Bison Homes at 16441 North 91st Street in Scottsdale.

This latest expansion of the museum includes an extensive addition to the Dee Flagg collection by bringing into the fold hundreds of works done by the other Flagg family members; father James (“J.M.”), mother Irene, brother Monte, and sisters Rita, Irene and Claudine. And the collection goes well beyond the paintings, sketches and carvings of this wonderfully talented family. It also encompasses many of the tools, brushes, cameras and other items used to create their artwork, including the first pocket knife ever used by Dee Flagg as a child for his earliest woodcarvings.

Also found in the collection are numerous awards and ribbons won by Dee and other family members over the years. One award of particular interest went to the family matriarch, Irene, who was named the national “Art Mother of the Year” in 1957. She was the first, and so far only, Arizona mother to win this award.