Now that February, and the Trailblazing Women series, is officially over I wanted to share a recap of the project plus a few of the things that I learned along the way.
🫶🏻 You can find all 28 names with links to the portraits and biographies of each trailblazer over on the kick-off post. 🫶🏻
The Recap:
Some of the portraits I’m most proud of from the Trailblazing Women series:
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe
- Barbara Conrad
- Mother George
- Wangari Maathai
- Laverne Cox
- Marie Maynard Daly
- Ernestine Eckstein
- Septima Poinsette Clark
- Andrea Jenkins
And the people whose stories I enjoyed learning about the most:
The portraits I struggled the most with:
Basically, the more recognizable and famous the person was, the more I struggled. I think it had to do with the fact that because of their fame and people’s general familiarity with those individuals, the more they would know if the portrait didn’t really look like the person.
I also had a hard time when the photos were black and white (ex: Harriet Tubman, Mother George, Sojourner Truth, etc.) because how do you realistically turn grayscale into color? So hopefully I did an okay job getting the skin tones right and not taking too many liberties.
Here’s the collection as a whole:
The Lessons:
First and foremost, I am so dang glad to have embarked on this project again. There were so many incredible people on the list and it was an honor to tell their story. I do hope I was able to do them justice and bring their stories to the forefront.
This project continues to affirm how much I love learning about people — women especially — and the impact they have/had on their communities, big and small. Humans have so much capacity for love, empathy, kindness, and courage; something I desperately need to be reminded of right now.
Of course, humans also have the capacity for an incredible amount of hatred and bigotry. Which brings me to my next point. I have always been angry at how women are quite literally missing from history, with their lives and contributions dismissed, miscredited, or erased altogether.
It’s (white) HIS-story, after all.
This is exponentially worse for Black women and those who identify outside of the hetero/cisgender norm. The erasure and systematic oppression of Black women, and in particular Black LGBTQIA+ women, is reprehensible. Another reason I am so dang glad to have done this project since it’s a way to help preserve the past and tell stories that often don’t get shared.
Something else that stuck out about this project, and not in a positive way, is that we are still fighting for the same opportunities and rights as we were 50-100 years ago. From the basic right to exist and having the autonomy to make choices about our bodies and health, to having equal rights under the law, religious freedoms, and freedom of speech, to voting rights for women and trans folx on the precipice of being stripped away…
Of course, that’s what happens when you deliberately erase and white-wash history for centuries.
All in all, I loved every night spent drawing and researching and learning more about these inspiring women. I am also grateful for the perspective that an undertaking like this provides, from the planning and execution to the learning and being stretched out of my comfort zone.
I look forward to doing it again (and again) in the months and years to come.
Did you follow along with the series? If so, what were your favorite portraits and/or people you read about?
X+O,
Emily
PS — All of the portraits from the Trailblazing Women series are for sale in the Etsy shop and on RedBubble.
PPS — I have a running list going that I plan to add names to throughout the year, so if there’s anyone you think I should add and/or want to see featured, DO TELL!