Katherine Johnson (born 1918), mathematician and computer scientist, was of NASA’s human ‘computers,’ who performed the complex calculations that enabled spacecraft to orbit Earth and to land on the moon. Check out the excellent movie Hidden Figures to learn more about Katherine (and her friends.) See video.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) was an American educator who overcame the double-adversity of being blind and deaf to become one of the 20th century’s leading humanitarians. She was an author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. Among other organizations, she co-founded the ACLU and Helen Keller International, whose mission is to save the sight and lives of the world’s most vulnerable people. But she is most remembered for her incredible determination and imagination that allowed her to move beyond the darkness of being blind and deaf and make the world a better one, especially for the disabled.

Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) was a French-American artist, best known for her large-scale sculptures and installation art (though she was also a painter, printer, and performance artist.) Though she began her studies in spacial geometry, the death of her mother caused her to turn her course, and she moved toward art making as a therapeutic tool. The themes in her long career often connect to events in her troubled childhood and the exploration of femininity. Louise kept company with many well known artists of her day, but she was not affiliated with one specific movement, preferring to stay original, always outside of a label, continuing to make art till the end of her life—her last piece was finished a week before she died at age 98.

Dame Vivienne Westwood (1941) is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. In 1970s London, she and her partner, music manager Malcolm McClaren sold customized t-shirts, ripped up and embellished with anti-establishment slogans and trousers with long straps attached, hugely popular with the growing punk rock scene. Over time she started her own line, using classic elements from historical costumes and traditional tartan patterns, and though she was constantly ridiculed by the British press, she managed to eventually become one of the top fashion designers in the world, even being given the royal honor of the title: Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). Delightfully ironic, as she stayed true to her punk roots for her entire career. At 79, she continues to design and build her fashion empire involved in the theatrics of her shows and brand, and she manages to balance this with passionate climate activism, a message she weaves into her designs and products. She also happens to be married to a husband 25 years her junior. What a rock star. God save Queen Viv. 👑

Camille Claudel (1864-1943) French Sculptor, who spent her twenties working as August Rodin's most talented assistant (and also muse and lover) made her own sculptures that some critics say outshone the expression of her mentor. Very few women were creating this kind of work at her time, especially the nude figure. In her thirties, she separated from his studio and relationship to make work on her own, but though she was able to make a living and some reputation as an artist, she fell into despair and her story ended tragically in an asylum. However, since her death, her work has been praised (typical, right?) and she is known as one of the foremost sculptors of history. I painted her here as a somewhat modern art student, battling her brilliance and passion with her shadows as even today many young artists struggle in the same way. (Not just young ones. And not just women.)

Tina Turner (b 1939) is a singer, dancer, songwriter, and actress, known for her big soulful voice, stage presence, long legs, and for making one of the biggest comebacks in music history. She rose to prominence as a singer 61 years ago, and despite the setbacks in her life, and the cultural stigmas of aging, she kept putting her gift into the world and reinventing her voice. She survived an abusive relationship with her ex Ike Turner, suffered a stroke, got a kidney transplant, and lost her 59-year-old son to suicide. Despite everything the icon has been through, Tina has kept a positive outlook, and keeps singing and dancing!

Joan Didion (born 1934) is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. She collaborated on several screenplays (including “A Star is Born”) with her husband, John Gregory Dunne. When he died of a heart attack after forty years of marriage,  she wrote a book about her grief, which also became a play.  Joan is a fashion icon as well as a literary icon: at the age of 80, she became of the “Face of Céline” for the French fashion label’s advertising campaign.

2022

Billie Holiday (1915-1959) was an American jazz singer who was known for her unique vocal delivery and improvisational skills. The pain of her troubled past came through in her song and captivated audiences, and though she had no formal education to speak of,  her soulful voice and her ability to boldly turn any material that she confronted into her own music made her a superstar of her time, overcoming the intense racial divides of the era. Today, she is remembered for her masterpieces, creativity and vivacity, and many of her songs are as well known today as they were decades ago.  Tragically, she was never able to sing the pain away, and she lost her life to drug and alcohol addiction at age 44. Billie Holiday’s poignant voice is still considered to be one of the greatest jazz voices of all time.

Elsa Lancaster, As the Bride of Frankenstein. "Frankenstein" (or the Modern Prometheus) was written by Mary Shelley when she was 19 years old, over 200 years ago. It considered the first science fiction novel and a masterpiece in gothic horror.

St. Joan of Arc (1412- 1431) a national heroine of France, was a French peasant girl, who at 17 years old, believing that she was acting under divine guidance, led the French army in a momentous victory at Orléans that repulsed an English attempt to conquer France during the Hundred Years’ War. Captured a year afterward, Joan was burned to death by the English and their French collaborators as a heretic. However, she became the greatest national heroine of her compatriots, and in 1920, she was canonized as a saint. Nearly 600 years after hear death, she is still revered for her unwavering vision and courage and may be the most famous teenager in history.

(With so many films and paintings of Joan to choose from, I decided to use Jean Seberg in the movie "Saint Joan" as reference for this piece.)

Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) was a trailblazing American dancer and instructor whose emphasis on freer forms of movement was a precursor to modern dance techniques. She developed an approach to dance that emphasized naturalistic movement. As well a being a huge performing star, she opened schools that integrated dance with other types of learning.

Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was a marine biologist, ecologist, and writer who alerted the world to the environmental impact of fertilizers and pesticides. After a long career as a scientific writer and editor for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, while closely observing changes in nature, she wrote about the damaging effects of the pesticide DDT, a popular household chemical which was falsely advertised as “harmless.” In her book “Silent Spring,” she accused the chemical industry of spreading misinformation and public officials of uncritically accepting industry claims. Chemical companies sought to discredit her as a Communist or a hysterical woman, and yet the public tuned in, outraged. As her research was backed up by boards of scientists, the national pesticide policy was reversed and DDT was banned for agricultural uses. This spurred a movement which led to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency. “Silent Spring,” which was was released on September 27, 1962, became an iconic piece of literature, ultimately about the impact humans have on the delicate balance of nature—57 years later, it is a textbook for many of the same problems we are dealing with today.

"I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality."—Frida Kahlo.

18x18, oil on canvas

$1300

Sojourner Truth was an American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son in 1828, she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man. She is best known for her speech on racial inequalities, "Ain't I a Woman?" delivered at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in 1851.

Anne Frank (1929-1945) was a German-born Jewish diarist, who documented her teenaged thoughts whilst hiding from the Nazis during World War II. For two years, Anne and her family lived in a secret annex of an Amsterdam warehouse until they were eventually captured. Though she did not survive the war, her writings were published as The Diary of a Young Girl, which became one of the world’s most widely read books about the Holocaust. Anne’s indefatigable spirit and hope for humanity in the midst of terrible circumstances made her one of the most beloved and admired heroines in modern history.

MarMargaret Keane (born 1927) is an American artist, known for painting the kitschy “big-eyed waifs” that were popular in the 1960s. At one point, her sentimental work, mass-reproduced and sold cheaply in dime-stores, were among the most popular and recognized in the country. The problem was that her her husband, Walter Keane was taking all the credit. Walter was a great marketer, but he lied to the public so that her work would be passed off as his own. Caught in his deception, Margaret worked, at the height of (his) fame, up to 16 hours a day. This would become one of the greatest stories of art fraud in America, regardless of whether the work was critically acknowledged as serious art. When Margaret finally found the courage to leave Walter and branch off on her own, the word came out that she had been the artist behind these popular paintings all along. Walter denied the charges so a “paint-off” was called for in court (to which Walter found many excuses not to engage.) Eventually, it was established that Margaret had been the original painter all along. In her words, after being awarded 4 million in damages (including emotional distress): “I never saw a cent of it, but I won… It was a blessing just to sign my name.”

Margaret was an overcomer and a survivor of an abusive relationship. In the end, truth won out, and she not only cleared her name, but she continued to make paintings, signed in her own name for the rest of her life. She’s 93 now. Bravo, Margaret!

I made her eyes just a little larger on purpose to pay tribute to Margaret’s style.

Nellie Bly (1864 – 1922) was an American journalist known for her investigative and undercover reporting. Though at first she found difficulty being hired as a female reporter, she took unusual risks to get the job. Nellie earned acclaim when she feigned insanity in order to expose the conditions of asylum patients at Blackwell’s Island in New York City. Her investigation resulted in several mental health care reforms. She continued her career as a stunt journalist, going undercover in various guises to expose corruption and injustice in jails, factories, and state legislature. Nellie achieved further fame after her newspaper sent her on a trip around the world in the fictional footsteps laid out in Jules Verne’s book, Around the World in Eighty Days. She did it in seventy-two, establishing a new world record. Nellie Bly was a spirited pioneer in her field, remembered most for launching a new kind of investigative journalism.

Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) is a Japanese conceptual artist who has suffered with a hallucinatory mental illness since she was six years old. This never stopped her from creating...in fact, it helped her. Now, nearly she still makes her polka-dotted sculptures and installations in her studio near the psychiatric hospital in Japan, where she has been in residence for forty years. She is currently considered one of the world’s biggest art stars.

18x18”. $1300

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (b. 1933) is a U.S. Supreme Court justice, the second woman to be appointed to the position. 
Ruth Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her older sister died when she was a baby, and her mother, one of her biggest sources of encouragement, died shortly before Ginsburg graduated from high school. She then earned her bachelor's degree at Cornell University, and became a wife and mother before starting law school at Harvard, where she was one of the nine women in a class of 500—and also full time caregiver to her small daughter and cancer-patient husband, Marty (“The only young man I dated that cared that I had a brain.”) The women were chided by the law school's dean for taking the places of qualified males. But Ginsburg pressed on and excelled academically, eventually becoming the first female member of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. Following her husband to New York, she transferred to Columbia Law School, where she graduated tied for first in her class and then became a professor at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School, teaching civil procedure as one of the few women in her field. Ginsburg spent a considerable part of her legal career as an advocate for the advancement of gender equality and women's rights, winning multiple victories arguing before the Supreme Court. After advocating as a volunteer lawyer for the ACLU in the 1970s. She was appointed as a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where she served until her appointment to the Supreme Court in 1993....where she serves to this day.

The National Sexual Assault hotline saw a 200% increase in calls on the day of the Ford-Kavanaugh hearing. Thank you, Dr. Ford for your bravery. Your vulnerability is powerful and makes a difference for so many. (I paint this one for my young daughter.)

Madeleine L’Engle (1918-2007) was an American author and poet best known for her young adult science-fiction, particularly the beloved book, A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels. She wrote over 60 books (many also for adults) that often reflected her faith and her strong interest in science. As an only child, Madeleine was raised by artistic parents in New York City, with plenty of freedom to use her imagination. Instead of her school work, she found that she would much rather be writing stories. In fact, she wrote her first book at age 5. She later joined the theatre, married an actor, moved to the countryside, and raised her children, running a general store, while always keeping up her lifelong discipline of writing and journaling. When she wrote A Wrinkle in Time, which went on to win the prestigious Newbery Medal, almost didn’t get published. It was rejected by 27 publishing agencies, and in her mid-forties, Madeleine was ready to retire. We are so glad she kept writing.

To give an idea of her wonderful mind, here are a selection of wonderful quotes from Madeleine L’Engle:

“The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.”

“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”

“Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.”

“The unending paradox is that we do learn through pain.”

“Inspiration usually comes during work rather than before it.”

“When we lose our myths we lose our place in the universe.”

“But unless we are creators we are not fully alive. What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint of clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts, or having some kind of important career.”

“It’s a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand.”

“Somethings have to be believed to be seen.”

Björk Guðmundsdóttir (born 1965) is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, actress, record producer, and performance artist with a four-decade-long career. She released her first album at age 11.

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist best known for her children's books featuring animals. She is also credited with preserving much of the land in

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) was one of the most important artists of American modern art. Considered the "Mother of American modernism," she painted abstractions of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. 

Margaret Mead (1901-1978) was an American anthropologist and writer, whose work rose to enormous success, partly due to her outspoken personality. Margaret took two dozen trips to the South Pacific to study primitive cultures and afterwards, she published books on the effects of social convention on behavior. She was among the first women to do so, and her work is still respected in the field to this day.

Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945) was a German Expressionist artist, who worked with drawing, printmaking and sculpture. Her works depict the effects of poverty, hunger, and war on the working class. She is Germany’s most celebrated female artist.

Anne Lamott (b. 1954)is a novelist and non-fiction writer and essayist whose autobiographical themes are truth, humanity, spiritual transformation, alcoholism, single parenting, families, and politics....among others. And always with a fantastic sense of humor. 

Anni Albers (1899 – 1994) was a German textile artist and printmaker. She is perhaps the best known textile artist of the 20th century. Rebelling against her comfortable upbringing by choosing to become an artist, she attended the modernist Bauhaus school, where students lived with challenging and impoverished conditions. For a woman, there there were very few options for further study after the foundation level so she entered the woman’s weaving workshop, but she quickly embraced the process and materials of an art form that she would come to revolutionize.  While at the Bauhaus, she met her husband, Josef Albers, who would become a master instructor at the school as well as one of the foremost artist/educators in the world. Anni eventually became the head of the Bauhaus weaving workshop herself.

When the Nazi party pressured the school to close (which it did a year later) the couple were invited to move to America and teach at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Though the Albers had never lived there, they embraced their new chapter of life, sharing their understanding of modernism and art to a new generation of American students. Over the years, they continued to make their own art and collect others’, rarely making work together but always encouraging each other’s creativity with deep understanding.

In 1949, Anni Albers became the first designer to have a one-person exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Albers’s design exhibition at MoMA began in the fall and then toured the US from 1951 until 1953, establishing her as one of the most important designers of the day. Through her long life, she continued in her passion for design as she wrote books and moved into the field of printmaking. She is credited for establishing Design History as a legitimate area of academic study.

Zelda Fitzgerald (1900-1948) Author, poet, dancer, painter, socialite, and (according to her husband, F. Scott) “the first American Flapper.” 

Lucille Ball (1911-1989) was an American actress and pioneer in comedy. She was the star of the popular television series, I Love Lucy (as well as others.) As an entertainer and businesswoman, Ball continuously broke barriers for women in entertainment business. In fact, she was the first woman to own a production studio.

About I Love Lucy, she said: “Instead of divorce lawyers profiting from our mistakes, we thought we'd profit from them."

Joan Mitchell (1926-1992) Abstract Expressionist painter 👩‍🎨

Toni Morrison (1931-2019) was a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, editor, and professor, one of the most important voices of modern American Literature. Among her best-known novels are The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved, and Jazz. Her novels are known for their epic themes, exquisite language, and richly detailed African American characters who are central to their narratives. She was the first African-American woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Patti Smith (Patricia Lee Smith, born in 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and visual artist who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses. Patti has been called the "punk poet laureate" because of the way she fused rock and roll with poetry. She's also been called the "Godmother of Punk." Her most widely known song is "Because the Night" (which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen.) Still performing, speaking, and writing in her 70s, she remains an iconic, influential figure that defies any contrived ideas of how women should act or look, or even how music or poetry "should" sound.  She found success without looking for it, but by truly expressing what was within her. Incidentally, in recent years, she has sung at the Vatican for the Pope and the Nobel Prize Award ceremony....her legacy is complex.

Juliette Gordon Low (1860-1927) was the founder of Girl Scouts of the USA with help from Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scouting Movement. Low and Baden-Powell both shared a love of travel and support of the Girl Guides. Juliette Low joined the Girl Guide movement, forming a group of Girl Guides in Scotland in 1911.

In 1912 she returned to the United States and established the first U.S. Girl Guide troop in Savannah, Georgia, that year. In 1915 the United States' Girl Guides became known as the Girl Scouts, and Juliette Gordon Low was the first president. She stayed active until the time of her death.

Her birthday, October 31, is commemorated by the Girl Scouts as "Founder's Day"

Source: Wikipedia

Painting: Sold

Yayoi Kusama (born 1929) is a Japanese artist, who at the age of 88, is one of the most prominent stars of the art world. She works in her studio from 9 to 6 every day, sitting in her wheelchair, painting on canvases laid on tables or propped on the floor.

Marisol Escobar (1930-2016) was an American sculptor born in France of Venezuelan parents. She was known for her boxlike figurative sculptures made of wood and other materials, often with figures grouped together in tableaux.  She rose to fame during the 1960s as part of the Pop Art movement. Her work was highly feminist, as she stove to express the many roles of women and family in society. 

 Qiu Jin (1875–1907) was a Chinese writer & poet, a strong-willed feminist who is considered a national hero in China. She was well educated, and used her writing skills to be impassion other women to rise up to their equal rights. She is considered "China's First Feminist." 

American folk singer Joan Baez is recognized for her nonviolent, antiestablishment (against a nation's political and economic structure), and anti-war positions. She has used her singing and speaking talents to criticize violations of human rights in a number of countries.

Source

Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954) was a Mexican painter, known for her surreal and very personal works, most of them self-portraits. Often bedridden, she overcame a life of great physical pain to become a prolific painter. Her unique personality, passion, and talent made her into one of the most revered painters of the modern art world.

I was thinking about what famous women (real or written) I admired most when I was a girl. Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith) was so high on my 5th grade (?) pedestal that when my best friend Genesis and I would play Charlie's Angels after school, we would BOTH be Kelly and we didn't even mind. :) I thought she was absolutely glorious.

11x14" SOLD

Sacagawea (1788-1812) was a Shoshone interpreter and explorer, best known for being the only woman on the Lewis and Clark expedition into the American West. She was merely 18 years old and carried her new born baby the entire trip. She also established cultural contacts with Native American population and researched natural history.

Painting done in collaboration with my daughter Justine, aged 6.

Eartha Kitt (1927-2008) American singer and actress. Conceived by rape and born on a cotton plantation, she went on to speak in 5 languages, singing in 7. She’s most famous for recording songs like “Santa Baby" and "C'est Si Bon" and also for the role of Catwoman on the original Batman tv series. 

Among other activism projects, she established the Kittsville Youth Foundation, a chartered and non-profit organization for underprivileged youths in the Watts area of Los Angeles. She was also a peace activist who vocally criticized the Government of the Vietnam War. She was then blackballed and put under CIA surveillance.Later on, she became an advocate for LGBT rights. In her words: "It's a civil rights thing, isn't it?"

Julia Child (1912-2004) American chef, author, and television presenter who brought cuisine to the masses.

Amelia Earhart Pilot (1897- 1939) was an American pilot who made several flight records, including being the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. A fierce advocate for women, she helped form the The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female aviators. She also acted as a university aeronautical engineer advisor and acted as a career counsellor to female students.  Amelia’s bright life was cut short when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in her attempt to become the first woman pilot to circumnavigate the earth.

Original Painting: 14x16" oil, framed, $900, 2018

Amelia Earhart Pilot (1897- 1939) was an American pilot who made several flight records, including being the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. A fierce advocate for women, she helped form the The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female aviators. She also acted as a university aeronautical engineer advisor and acted as a career counsellor to female students.  Amelia’s bright life was cut short when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in her attempt to become the first woman pilot to circumnavigate the earth.

Anna Lee Fisher (born 1949) is an American chemist, emergency physician, and NASA astronaut. The mother of two children, in 1984 she became the first mother in space, going into orbit when her first child was still a baby.

RIP Delores O’Riordan. Irish Singer (1971-2018) 

Mathilde Kschessinska (1872-1971) was a flamboyant and controversial ballerina of the Imperial Russian Ballet. The first Russian to be given the title Prima Ballerina Assoluta, after mastering 32 consecutive fouettés en tournant (“whipped turns” done in place and on one leg), a feat considered in that era the supreme achievement in dance technique.

Sophie Scholl (1921 – 1943) was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist, active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. She was convicted of high treason after having been found distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich with her brother Hans. As a result, they were both executed by guillotine. Following her death, a copy of the sixth leaflet was smuggled out of Germany through and used by the Allied Forces. In mid-1943, they dropped over Germany millions of propaganda copies of the tract, now retitled The Manifesto of the Students of Munich.

“I know that life is a doorway to eternity, and yet my heart so often gets lost in petty anxieties. It forgets the great way home that lies before it.”

– Sophie Scholl

Mother Teresa (1910-1997) was an Albanian Roman-Catholic nun who committed her life to the service of the poor in Calcutta, India. In 1950, she founded of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation of women who have taken a vow to give “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor” and minister to (in Teresa’s own words) “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” Considered one of the greatest humanitarians of the 20th century, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and canonized as Saint Teresa of Calcutta in 2016.

Dame Julia Elizabeth "Julie" Andrews (born 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She was a child actress and singer, considered a vocal prodigy, appearing in London's west end when when she was only 13 years old and Broadway when she was just 19. She began to star in films, shortly afterward. Her first feature film, Mary Poppins, won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.  Among her other acclaimed performances was Maria in The Sound of Music. In 2000, Julie was given the honor of Dame by Queen Elizabeth for her services to the performing arts. Sadly, Julie lost her singing ability over the years, but she still performs in movies and television, and she writes children's books as well. She holds  a place in many hearts as one of the most beloved British entertainers of the 20th century.

Violette Szabo (1921 – 1945) was a French-born British spy during the WW2. Her young husband had been killed in the war, compelling her to fight against the Nazi Regime. She was posthumously awarded the St George Cross among other medals of honor. Her heroism shines light on what many brave women did for the resistance effort.

Joni Mitchell (1943-) is a Canadian singer and songwriter, who became one of the leading folk singers of the late 1960s and 70s. At the age of nine, she contracted polio and while she was infirmed, she taught herself guitar entertained the other hospital patients with her singing. Over time, her very personal, poetic style of songwriting and open chord guitar style, made her one of the most influential singers of her generation.  She is also a respected painter, whose colorful work graces many of her own album sleeves, let alone gallery walls.

Sigrid Undset (1882 – 1949) was a Norwegian novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928 for Kristin Lavransdatter, a trilogy about the life of a Scandinavian woman in the Middle Ages, from birth until death. When Joseph Stalin’s invasion of Finland began the Winter War in 1939, Sigrid donated her Nobel Prize to support the Finnish war effort she fled Norway for the United States because of her opposition Nazi occupation of Norway. Because she had strongly criticized Hitler since the early 1930s and her books were banned in German, she was forced to flee Norway for the United States when the Germans invaded her country. There, she tirelessly pleaded the case of occupied Norway and that of Europe’s Jews in writings, speeches, and interviews. Sigrid Undset’s face is portrayed on the 500 kroner note  (Norwegian currency.)

Nina Simone (1933–2003) was a legendary performer in the 1950s and 60s, who sang a mix of jazz, blues, and folk music, always infusing her classical training as a pianist. Not one to shy away from her heritage nor controversy, she became an outspoken and revered protest singer for the Civil Rights Movement.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695) was a 17th century nun, self-taught scholar and acclaimed writer of the Latin American colonial period. She was also a staunch advocate for women's rights. She began her life as a nun in 1667 so that she could study at will. After taking her vows, Sor Juana read tirelessly and wrote plays and poetry, often challenging societal values and becoming an early proponent of women's rights. Sor Juana is heralded for her Respuesta a Sor Filotea, which defends women's rights to educational access, and is credited as the first published feminist of the New World. 

(credit: Biography.com)

Martha Graham (1894-1991) was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, the Graham technique, reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide. In 1926, she established her own dance company in New York City and developed an innovative, non-traditional technique that spoke to more taboo forms of movement and emotional expression. She danced well into her 70s and choreographed until her death in 1991, leaving the dance world forever changed.

Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) was an African American anthropologist, author, and Civil Rights activist. She wrote many plays and books about the African American experience, becoming one of the most influential figures of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York, spanning the 1920s. “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is Zora’s most famous book. Though it was published in 1937, it is still widely read to this day and has come to be regarded as a very important work in both African-American literature and women’s literature.

Sandra Joyce Corson Lewis, born on Feb 13, 1944 in Skowhegan, Maine. As a teenager Sandra lost both of her parents, her father in a work accident and her mother from physical ailments. After that, she was raised from here by Marion Corson, her older sister. Sandra also has two younger sisters, Mary and Joan. While still in high school, Sandra knew that she wanted to be a missionary. While attending the University of Oklahoma for a degree in Linguistics, she met Ronald Kenneth Lewis, who had a similar dream for his life. Within six months of getting married, they found themselves on a boat heading to Papua New Guinea to serve on the mission field.

In Papua New Guinea, they selected a remote tribe in the Sepik province, accessibly only by a 10 to 12 hour boat ride. It was here, that they adopted two children born in Tasmania, Australia: Matthew and Bronwyn. with their only access being by a 10 to 12-hour boat ride. One day in 1975, when the children were just toddlers, while Sandra was recovering from an illness, she awoke one day, unable to walk. This changed her life and the lives of her family as well.

The family was forced to move back to the US, where she could receive medical advice and treatments.

Even then, her main goal was to recover and return back to her mission in Papua New Guinea, and fulfill her purpose of being a missionary and translating the Bible into an unwritten tongue. The whole time her main goal was to recover and return back to Papua New Guinea. To complete her lifelong purpose of being a missionary and translating the bible into an unwritten tongue.

In 1978, while the family was still living in the states, a baby boy joined the Lewis family. In order to return to the mission field, Sandra would need to be walk on her own and prove that she could be self-sufficient. The doctors in charge of her care and rehabilitation spent just under six months helping her learn to walk again and simply gave up. Their consensus was that it would be impossible for her to ever walk again.

Still set on returning to the mission field and continuing the Bible translation for the Saniyo people, she did not accept this answer and continued on her own, teaching herself how to walk again. In 1980 Sandra defied the doctors by returning to Papua New Guinea with her family of five. In total, she spent 37 years in that country, completing the translation of the New Testament into the Saniyo languate

In total she spent 37 years in Papua New Guinea, completing the translation of the New Testament into the Saniyo language.

In 2005 they celebrated a dedication ceremony and put 500 copies of the New Testament into the hands of the people. Some may see a life full of tragedy, grief, sorrow, and pain. Yes… there was much of all those things. I don’t see it that way at all. I see a strong woman, beautiful both inside and out, who would not take no for an answer when it came to following her dreams. Nothing short of death itself (which she came close to several times) could have stopped her from completing what she set out to do, to do what she knew must be done.

The level of determination, perseverance, and strength to even set out on an adventure of this magnitude is grand—bigger than the oceans crossed to get there, to come back physically damaged, to recover and return, across the vast distance of the oceans again, to finish what was started. She has taught me many lessons about life and how to live it: how to persevere through just about anything, to always land on my feet, regardless of what situation, environment, or country I get dropped into, to be patient, kind to others, to fight for and love the underdog, to not accept people or things at face value, to dig deeper, to find the true worth of a person.

She is the strongest woman that I know. The most determined. The most accomplished.

What she has done is nothing short of a miracle… yes, because of her I believe in miracles.

With much love,

Matthew Lewis

(Her son that is both lucky and blessed to have her as a Mother!)

Commissions available on request. 

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