It is our right won with a battle of immense sacrifice, suffering, death, determination, courage and bravery.
“It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. … Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.”
―Susan B. Anthony
I starting a new painting series based on influential women in history.
The first features the suffragette women who fought for women’s right to vote. These brave women stood up and made their voices be heard. Many went to jail and suffered much torture. Their voices and actions paved the way for the rights that we now have and must never take for granted!
This piece is a combination for paint (acrylic) and collage. The woman in the middle is painted and around her are hidden bits of text and collaged images of other suffragette women. In the top right corner is a woman being force fed with a tube after being arrested from a hunger strike. There is a woman in the bottom left corner holding a sign that says “To Ask For Freedom for Women is not a Crime and Suffragettes should not be treated as Criminals” Another image in the Bottom Right shows a women being dragged away by police. Women who were not suppose to be allowed to vote. Women who’s voices were not equal to men’s and women who wanted that the change. I cannot imaging living in a world where I don’t have the same basic rights as men. I get chills thinking about what these women endured.
100 years ago, on June 4, 1919 congress passed the amendment to grant women the right to vote in America. Ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment was passed. The battle began in 1848 when women like Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Staton stood up and started the fight. It took a lot longer for men and women of color to be granted this right, and there are still groups fighting today with voting laws that are discriminatory.
I wanted this piece to be a voice from these brave women to us today to never, ever forget their courageous actions that gave us the rights we have today. I wanted to be a message to all people to never take for grated those rights and proudly, exercise them by always voting!
We must never ever forget.