It’s difficult to know where to begin…

A childhood fascination with NYC. My dad often traveled to the Big Apple for work. On occasion, I would be the lucky kid that got to tag along with him and my mother. Times Square, FAO Schwartz, the Swatch store, horse carriage rides through Central Park, Cats and Les Miserables on Broadway, the Windows to the World at the Twin Towers, MOMA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the store windows at Christmas time, visit China Town, ice skating at Rockefeller Center, high tea at the Ritz, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. The energy and melting pot of people was curious and energizing for this St. Louis girl. And after reading this, I see how lucky I was. Indeed. And still enormously grateful, Mom and Dad.

I have always loved travel and exploring different cultures. After graduating from the University of Arizona, I moved to NYC to intern in the legal department of the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum. I lived in a dorm type situation in the high rise of the 92nd Street Y. My new friends were from all over the world. We explored NYC from head to toe, from museums to night clubs (no surprise there…) and shared our own countries vibes and traditions. We ate food from around the world, heard languages from around the world, and no one looked alike. We saw that humans from diverse cultures, lives, religions, viewpoints settled here and coexisted. And many of their family members before them arrived via a harbor, sailing by this Lady.

A few years after leaving NYC, I met and married an Air Force Officer. Our life in the Air Force took us around the world. He proposed in South Korea, we had children in Arizona and Alaska, we moved around the United States meeting wonderful people, exploring local cultures, foods and traditions, hearing different languages and accents, and no one looked alike. Which was refreshing. It seemed to be a wonderful theme of our great nation, made up of many cultures, everywhere we lived.

The first Dame du Monde Libre was created while my husband was at the Army War College, which educates military officers from countries all over the world. This school is located in Pennsylvania, and takes all of the students and their spouses on a weekend trip to NYC. Exploring the city led us to the Statue of Liberty. Seeing her again, I decided she was too cool not to create. She was created based on the history of the Statue of Liberty, as a gift of friendship from France. Images from around the world flow in her robe, symbolic of the many cultures who have immigrated to our country and made the USA what it is today. I delivered this painting to an American friend living in Switzerland, a woman enormously appreciative of the world and cultures…and good food.

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If anything will give you enormous appreciation for other cultures, it is living abroad. Even more so, it will give you greater appreciation of your home country. The Air Force took our family to Germany for four years. It was a beautiful gift to live and explore abroad. Every night at 5pm on the Air Force Base, the German and American National Anthems would radiate over a loud speaker. Cars would stop, people would stop what they were doing stand at attention or with their hands over their hearts, until these songs were complete. Even the children on the playing fields stopped playing to respect. The Air Force gave me a passionate amount of patriotism for my country.

While in Germany, I decided to make another attempt at creating this Lady. This time I got some help from friends. I posted a photograph of the Statue of Liberty on my social media account. I asked my friends to tell me what this monument represents to them. The response was beautifully overwhelming. And powerful. People wrote of their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents arriving at Ellis Island. Words like freedom, new beginnings, healing, patriotism, opportunity were shared, among many others. So I incorporated every word that was shared with me into the background of this painting. Like graffiti. I called her The Truth About Lady Liberty, as her image holds a different truth to each person who sees her. This painting went home with a military family who is passionate about America, about seeing the world through the eyes of other cultures, and who have beautiful daughters adopted from Kazakhstan and China.

Since returning to Tucson, I have been painting a lot of southwestern art, but it was time to take on this Lady once again. She’s not easy to paint from any angle. And I didn’t think as much about the deeper meaning or symbolism this time. I worked quickly and covered the canvas with wild paint, added her figure in polka dotted paper, decided she would be brightly painted with numerous colors, stars shining and a radiating, moving sky. Like fireworks. Her torch is made from a map of Manhattan, her crown from music notes, her book from paper quoting folks such as Einstein, Emerson and Helen Keller. A tiny bit of copper paint shines. The word enlighten symbolizes knowledge, awareness, and understanding. This Lady is going home to California, to a family who looked at her and immediately saw freedom, inclusion, acceptance and pride. How beautiful and special is that? Especially after a year of challenges for our great nation. Clearly, this Lady will be constantly evolving in her symbolism as she ages. As she should.

Until next (Lady) time…