The third in my women’s issues series addresses voting rights … “Iconic VOTE”
Size (18 x 24) and some design components were established by the two previous pieces.

Selecting the materials, techniques and design elements always seem to evolve from my first concept to the completed work. And this piece definitely changed. I worked it during the upcoming election with a confidence that has been challenged since. The circle would have three smaller circles placed in a pyramid. I VOTED (sticker we got when voting); the Clinton logo in blues; and Charlotte Pritt’s West Virginia Governor race in green. The remaining circle parts would be purple with a white edge for contrast.

I thought I would depict our flag as the background: cutting up the actual blue lawn sign for Hillary and hooking it in the upper left then hand piecing red and white cotton stripes making up the rectangle. The message would be gold, embroidered on the cotton, hooked in the blue section completing the suffragette reference (white, gold and purple). It read at this point: 2016 RIGHT TO VOTE FOR ALL WOMEN. People could read this with emphasis on ALL or WOMEN and leading to different meanings.

November 9 arrived. I decided to throw out the large logos and change the wording to 2016 RIGHT TO VOTE FOR ANY ONE. In my quest to repurpose items in my work I recalled a patriotic crocheted doily we purchased in Shartlesville, PA years ago. It was just right, leaving an inch for an interesting edge like my other pieces. I painted the backing gold under the white star in center, then white to enhance the reds and blues with the gold again outside.

Ok the USA part was taken care of. Now the women I voted for and the message to VOTE. Using thin and thick lines with different contrast, I wanted to draw people into the piece from afar to find a secondary message.  The red thread for I VOTED, AND YOU? can be read from farther than the white pearl cotton embroidered on the gold saying: “for BEVERLY KEADLE, CHARLOTTE PRITT, HILLARY CLINTON, NATALIE TENNANT“.

The background is hooked using five different wools in deep blue/purples with the brighter turquoise showing how, as in the other two pieces, the directional hooking creates stripes . I selected a very dark value for my solemn mood, a purple caste as one more acknowledgement of suffragette colors and for he highest contrast with the white wide hooked letters.

I think this is a strong piece with interesting details and look forward to the upcoming years exercising my right to VOTE. The eighteen year old women who vote for the first time in 2020 will be doing so 100 years and 25 Presidential Elections after the first.