if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.” -Amanda Gorman
Back in January, my kids were out doing a scavenger hunt and I found myself alone in my classroom. I turned on the Inauguration just as Amanda Gorman, an artist of words, began to speak. I was immediately captivated by her words that not only painted a picture of truth but also of hope. The only thing that resonated with me as much as her words was the delivery in which she spoke them. Throughout her entire poem, my mind kept coming back to my favorite Ruth Bader Ginsburg quote, “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” The last three lines of Amanda Gorman’s poem above inspired me immediately to create an artwork, but it would be some time before the image would reveal itself. As I was finally putting away my Christmas decorations and rolling up the lights as carefully as I could knowing full well they would come out of the box in a giant tangle come next year, I began looking closely at the wires. I noticed how elaborately twisted they were and how the entire strand works together to create this beautiful glow that can light up an entire room…it was also not lost on me that when one light burns out, they all go out. Individually, each light is tiny, but as an entirely working strand, the brightness the tiny lights can produce is magic. “For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” People often ask me, what’s with all the self-portraits? My reply: “Good art is not about matching your sofa, but about the conversation it starts”. I am eternally inspired by badass women. It doesn’t matter who they are or what their profession is, what matters is the kind of human they are. How are they fighting for the things they care about, and how are they leading others to join them? It would be easy to just create an image of them, but there are reasons out of my control that I rarely take that approach. The logistical reason is that I only work from real life or my own photos and unfortunately these badass women are not hanging around in my studio, but beyond that, I use self-portraits to show how their badassery is moving through the world and leading others to join them.