SHE Will Rise

My current series arose out of the decision of the Supreme Court to revoke a woman's right to autonomy over her own body and reproductive health and decisions. I was born in 1969, so for most of my life, I have taken for granted that my body was my own. In 1973, the American government agreed with me. Today, I am fifty-three years old. Abortion is no longer an issue for me, as my child-bearing years have passed. Nonetheless, with the stroke of a pen, four individuals took away the rights of 167,000,000 female citizens of this country. I went into a two-week-long panic attack after Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24, 2022. Now, I pick up my brush. I lay paint across canvas. I save my sanity.

 On June 24th, my good friend and talented author and poet, Cliff McClelland, reached out to me. He anticipated how emotional I would be over this decision and wanted to support me as an artist and a woman. He also wanted to express outrage over the Supreme Court’s decision but felt he had no right to weigh in as a man. After a long conversation about how we all must weigh in, stand up, be heard, and VOTE, he penned a fiery and powerful poem. It’s difficult to read because it’s composed of the language of the abuser and the abused. Yet, its unapologetic, in-your-face imagery of the allegorical rape of women's rights feels representative of the current landscape in America, the land of vanishing freedoms.