TRuth Bader Ginsburg RIP

I framed this one for my daughters and wife before I managed to photograph it.

I was deeply saddened to hear that Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away recently. My whole family celebrates RBG, we regularly play “I Dissent” an RBG-themed board game. We have a children’s book biography of her life that we have read several times. My youngest daughter even went as RBG for Halloween.

I am deeply grateful for her as a role model that my daughters can look up to, that I can look up to. I am proud to know that she served as a champion of human rights in our country for as long as she did. She is a stalwart example of the potential in all of us, and a powerful demonstration to women like my daughters that they can aspire and achieve great things.

When I heard of her passing, I painted the above in honor of her.

Then someone asked for a copy of their own, so I made another.

This painting is of the collar that RBG identified as her favorite in her collection. Perhaps it isn’t as iconic as her “I dissent” collar, but I don’t think she should be known for what she disagreed with. That she was brave enough to proudly, and powerfully disagree is a testament to her life, but I think it is more fitting to remember her in terms of what she approved, rather than what she disavowed.

This collar is a simple white knotted thread with white beads, and was handmade in Cape Town, South Africa (the heartland of Apartheid). I appreciate its simplicity, elegance, and it’s history than anything, I appreciate the powerful voice it has come to represent.


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