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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (born into slavery on July 16, 1862 – died March 25, 1931), more commonly known as Ida B. Wells, was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, feminist, and an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

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.

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

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.

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) 

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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?"

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. 

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

Simone De Beouvoir (1908–1986) was a French writer, intellectual, and social advocate. She published countless works of fiction and nonfiction during her lengthy career—often with existentialist themes—including 1949’s The Second Sex, which is considered a pioneering work of the modern feminism movementAlso an existentialist philosopher, she had a long-term relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre. She lent her voice to many political and social causes.

Mary Tyler Moore (1936–2017) was an award winning actress, television star, and producer known for her roles on the DIck Van Dyke show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which focused on the life of a successful working woman. She became a role model and fashion icon for all the professional women going into a liberated workforce in the 1960s and 70s. She was one of the most popular actresses in television history.

Mercedes Negrón Muñoz a.k.a. "Clara Lair" (1895 – 1973) was a Puerto Rican poet and essayist who was considered one of the preeminent feminist and postmodernist female Hispanic writers of the 20th century.

Painting Unavailable for Purchase