55 x 41 in.

Materials: Cotton and sateen yardage and Douglass portrait printed by Spoonflower from artist’s designs, fusible bonding, cotton six-strand embroidery floss, acrylic paint, metallic “2020” charms, cotton backing, Dual Duty thread, cotton/bamboo batting

 Techniques: Fused appliqué, hand embroidery and hand stitching, painting, tacking of “2020” charms as quilting

 Statement: “Right Is of No Sex, Truth Is of No Color” is part of the motto of The North Star, Frederick Douglass’s newspaper printed in Rochester, New York. He printed the original broadside of the Declaration, reproduced here in negative images. The image of Douglass is reproduced from a mid-19^th-century photographic portrait, showing him as he looked during the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention.  Although he had contentious relationships with most of the white suffragist leaders later in life, Douglass wholeheartedly supported the Declaration and was one of the signers.  The “Votes for Women” button is c. 1915, and the commemorative 1948 U.S. postage stamp depicts Carrie Catt, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  The ancient symbol for “female” (Venus) is hand embroidered around all the buttons.

EXHIBITED: Created for the Women's Votes, Women's Voices, Women's Rights exhibition at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, Septemebr 8, 2022 - April 2, 2023.

COLLECTION: Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas

Photos by Deidre Adams

Click here to see a detail image