Tag Archives: Political Art

Female Power Project, perSISTERS designs, What I'm Making

I’M SPEAKING, another one for Kamala Harris

I’M SPEAKING — for Kamala Harris, perSISTERS digital original print in the Female Power Project

During the October 8 vice presidential candidate debate, the current Vice President repeatedly interrupted Harris. Harris managed to communicate her insistence on her right to speak while walking an extremely narrow tightrope of expectations. I cannot express it better than this, from Maiysha Kai of The Glow Up:

“And yet, while many will report on the moment, fewer will recognize or appreciate the tightrope she walked on Wednesday night. Teetering precariously between white disdain, male dismissal, and Black distrust, Harris was tasked with neither being too angry, nor too reactive, nor too…much. Arguably, this also includes being burdened with the restraint of not being too brilliant or dynamic, so as not to upstage the man she was there to represent and support (whom she had also previously trounced on the debate stage).”

https://theglowup.theroot.com/the-significance-of-im-speaking-1845313016

DESIGN NOTE
The text in the background behind Harris expresses the constrictions she experienced: “Keep Smiling, don’t be too smart, don’t act angry, not too strong, not aggressive, not too black, use simple words, don’t be too girly, be feminine, act motherly, don’t speak too loud, not too black too strong too angry.” Behind this text, on the print but not the magnet, is a kolam design, a winding knot-like drawing that women in some states in Southern India draw every day in flour on the ground outside their front doors. People walk on it and by the end of the day it is destroyed and swept away, to be replaced anew the next day. It is a woman’s art that has interesting mathematical properties. It reminds me of the winding calculations many women have to run in their minds while they are speaking, in order to avoid the many traps women can fall in to just by speaking with power. It is truly exhausting. But Kamala is very powerful, indeed.

Kamala Devi Harris (born October 20, 1964) is the junior Senator from California and the Vice Presidential candidate for the Democratic Party in the 2020 election. Before she was a senator, she served as Attorney General of California. Harris was born in Oakland, California. She is the daughter of an Indian mother—a cancer researcher who emigrated in 1960—and a Jamaican-American father who is an economics professor. (Wikipedia)

This print is up on my shop now at FemalePowerProject.com and a magnet is coming soon.

Female Power Project, perSISTERS designs, What I'm Making

NEW 17 month perSISTERS Calendar

Cover of the new perSISTERS Calendar

It’s ready and available for purchase on my Female Power Project Etsy shop.

17 Feminist Icons are included in this 17 month calendar (September 2019 through Jan 2021). I thought this calendar might be perfect for people heading off to college. The images are 8×10 inches so when you are finished using it as a calendar you can easily frame up your favorites. The images are from my popular perSISTERS series in the #FemalePowerProject. This calendar costs less than one of my standard 11×14 digital prints. The women featured are: Ruby Bridges, Eleanor Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Ilhan Omar, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Megan Rapinoe, Greta Thunberg, Maxine Waters, Edie Windsor, Dolores Huerta, Susan B. Anthony & Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Malala Yousafzai, Frida Kahlo, Fannie Lou Hamer, Marie Curie, and Anita Hill & Christine Blasey Ford. You can read about all these designs on this blog. 36 pages. 12 inches square when closed. Very colorful! The date grid for each month shows major US holidays and important dates from women’s history.

These women are also featured in individual prints in many sizes. Contact me and I can put things up on Etsy for you to buy.

Here is a link to a video of me paging through the calendar: https://vimeo.com/353390794

Female Power Project, perSISTERS designs, What I'm Making

REPRESENT for Ilhan Omar

REPRESENT — #FemalePowerProject perSISTERS print honoring Ilhan Omar

Ilhan Abdullahi Omar (born October 4, 1982) has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota since January 2019. She came to the U.S. as a refugee when she was 10, her family secured asylum three years later, and at 17 she became a U.S. citizen. She is part of the most diverse group of women ever voted into power in the U.S., and a member of the self-identified “squad” of progressive Democrats which also includes Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). She and Ms. Tlaib are the first Muslim women voted into congress, and Omar is the first woman to wear a hijab on the House floor, the first Somali-American, the first naturalized citizen from Africa in Congress and the first non-white woman to represent Minnesota.

Omar has been the target of many conspiracy theories, death threats, and other harassment by political opponents. The “squad” were singled out in a Tweet by the president as he told them to “go back where they came from” and at a rally Omar was targeted when the crowd started chanting “send her back.”  She has responded in social media by quoting Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison, great American female voices of courage and defiance (and subjects of Female Power Project works). We can see how messages from and about female power build a foundation for female power.

I believe Omar’s story is one of the great American stories. She is a refugee who comes to America, works really hard, seizes opportunities, she is scrappy and brave, smart and committed, and loves the democratic process. People hurl abuse at her and call her ungrateful because she thinks America can do better, that there can be better justice for more people in our country, one based on mercy, compassion, and nurturing, not a justice limited by competition and privilege. 

There are several meanings of “represent” I am trying to get at with this print. “Represent” is about who she is, what she stands for, and what she does. As this particular American she is an example of a refugee, an immigrant, a Muslim, a woman, a person with dark skin. Because she is a public official from these intersecting, marginalized communities she never gets to NOT represent these things in our nation. It must be exhausting. Her ability to defiantly meet this challenge is truly a power. She stands for a particular story about what America is: a land of immigrants, of different kinds of people coming together and creating something that is complicated, dynamic, confounding, flawed, and so much greater and more interesting than its constituent parts. And she does her job. She represents the interests of the people who elected her, who sent her to speak for them. (70% of the people in her district are white, by the way.) These are the people who crowded the airport to welcome Omar home to Minnesota after that other crowd chanted “send her back.” She went back home and then she went back to Washington to do her job.

Representation is important. Of the already iconic image captured by Martin Schoeller for Vanity Fair of six new women* in Congress, Joshua Moradel writes, “With 100 women being elected to Congress in 2018, the faces of these six is a clear representation of the diversity that is starting to transform the federal government. … They pave the way for other citizens, regardless of their religion, gender, who they love, or where they come from, to believe someone like them is fighting for their best interest, well-being, and success.”
*the women in the picture are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Deb Haaland, Veronica Escobar, and Sharice Davids. See Buzzfeed, https://www.buzzfeed.com/joshuagmoradel/first-woman-congress-diversity-photo-2019

Design Note

This design is based on Ilhan Omar’s official portrait as a member of congress, photographed by Kristie Boyd. I knew for certain that I wanted to do a print about Omar once I saw this photo, because she is wearing a red, white, and blue hijab for her official portrait. Her hijab is representing her Americanness. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ilhan_Omar,_official_portrait,_116th_Congress.jpg