I work in various mediums to create art that honors women. The ceramic mask series highlights under-recognized women in history who have made significant contributions, but haven’t always been part of the narrative.
Alma Thomas
Her painting, “Resurrection” was the first artwork by an African American woman acquired for the White House’s permanent art collection (2006)
Frida Khalo
A Mexican artist most well-known for her self-portraits, Frida Khalo explored questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class and race in Mexican society.
Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking and sculpture to depict the effects of poverty, hunger and war on the working class.
She was an advocate for victims of social injustice, war, and inhumanity.
Camille Claudel
Camille Claudel was a French sculptor known for her figurative works in bronze and marble. She died in relative obscurity. Later in the 20th century, she gained renewed attention and recognition for the originality and quality of her work.
Mary Oliver
Mary Jane Oliver was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. She found inspiration for her work in nature and had a lifelong habit of solitary walks in the wild. A line from her poem The Summer Day is seen here.
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Maya Lin
Maya Ying Lin is an American architect, designer and sculptor. Born in Athens, Ohio to Chinese immigrants, she attended Yale University to study architecture. She designed the Vietnam War Memorial located in Washington, D.C.
Polio Virus
Dr. Dorothy Horstman
After over a decade of independent research, she discovered the polio virus in the blood, which led to creation of the first polio vaccine by Drs. Sabin and Salk. They had been looking in the wrong place. Pictured here is the pattern of the polio virus as seen under a microscope. Dr. Horstman was the first woman appointed as a professor at the Yale School of Medicine.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Notorious U.S. Supreme Court Justice who fought for equal rights in the workplace. Ginsburg spent much of her legal career as an advocate for gender quality and women’s rights, winning many arguments before the Supreme Court.
Smalls Paradise
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades, she spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work.
Rachel Carson
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts…There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” -Silent Spring by Rachel Carson: the book that was a catalyst in establishing the Environmental Protection Agency. In her book, Rachel Carson reveals her field research where she discovered DDT in streams from Industry waste. DDT was also in the fish that the eagles ate, which caused their eaglets not to live. She pioneered the idea of a balanced ecosystem where one thing can affect many.
Judy Chicago
An American feminist artist who created “The Dinner Party” installation pictured, remains relevant today. I had the pleasure of meeting Judy Chicago at her “Herstory” retrospective exhibit in NYC.
Ann Lowe
Called “society’s best-kept secret,” Ann Lowe made gowns for special occasions, including Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress. Outside of her clientele her name was little known, which could be attributed to the fact that she was a Black woman making dresses for mostly white women in early 20th century America.
Eunice Carter
Eunice Carter was known as a pioneering African American lawyer, the first Black woman assistant district attorney in New York, and for her instrumental role in prosecuting mobster Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, earning her the nickname "Lady Racketbuster". She was a trailblazer who broke barriers in the legal field while also working as a social worker.
Big Raven
Emily Carr
Emily Carr was a Canadian artist who was inspired by the monumental art and villages of the First Nations and the landscapes of British Columbia. She also was a vivid writer and chronicler of life in her surroundings, praised for her "complete candour" and "strong prose".
Grace Hardigan
Grace Hartigan was an American abstract expressionist painter and a significant member of the vibrant New York School of the 1950s and 1960s.
Zaha Hadid
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid was an Iraqi and British architect, artist, and designer. She is recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. She designed the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, OH.
Galaxy SOHO, Bejing
Kelly Johnson
Inspired by nature, a leaf mask represents my work as an artist.