Some more progress today on the Anita Hill painting. Snakes are a really fun challenge to paint. as they have such a variety of complex colors and patterns. We as humans often have an aversion to snakes and I'm using that aversion to say something but I mean no disrespect to snakes!

Part of the Ghost Gallery small works holiday show going on now! These are 8" x 10" watercolor and ink, already framed.

What woman has not had to walk through her life as through a gauntlet, facing down rude (or obscene or threatening) men and boys. 

AOC's grace and eloquence in her speech on the floor of the US Congress, in response to the crude behavior towards her (and the lame excuses that followed) of a southern Congressman, was so welcome that I watched  it five times in a row, I simply could not get enough.

This made me think of Anita Hill and her awful experience in being grilled by men in Congress. I also thought of Angela Davis, put in jail for daring to speak radical thoughts. These women are still speaking truth to power today.

These are the first three that I've been working on in this group of oil paintings. In the works is a plan for Shirley Chisholm, who inspired me so much when she ran for president in 1972.
​

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's speech combatting the sexism of foul-mouthed men in the House of Representatives (and elsewhere) was riveting! I thought about her and all the women who must "suffer the slings and arrows" in the course of their lives.

Now of course I have nothing against sharks, toads or snakes but since they have a certain connotation in the mind of humans, I have portrayed them as adversaries here. I also thought about how these women might center themselves in the face of the onslaught of negativity that they face. All I could fall back on was what I would use, the beauty of nature. A warm green grassy field, the sound of waves on the sand, or the gentle rolling hills of home.