1 1

Suffragist
Description

Suffragist is an homage to Lucy Burns, a leader in the movement to win the right to vote for women. She was the most-jailed activist in the U.S. movement, and along with her friend, Alice Paul, started the National Woman’s Party in the early twentieth century.

Burns was arrested multiple times for protesting outside the White House in Washington, D.C. and sent to the Occoquan Workhouse. She considered herself and the other women inmates political prisoners, and helped organize protests, including hunger strikes. In 1917, after her third arrest, she was sentenced to the maximum sentence, and (along with others) tortured and tormented by the guards, including being stripped naked and chained with her hands over her head for an entire night. On hunger strike, she was force-fed through her nostrils when the guards couldn’t pry her mouth open.

The ghostly portrait of Lucy Burns (made from a photo taken of her when she was at the Occoquan Workhouse) was printed onto silk organza, then hand-stitched to the antique white hand-worked napkin with 101 lines of stitching, one for every year that has passed since her imprisonment. Purple and white were worn by suffragists to identify themselves, so I primarily used those colors in this piece as well. The quote that is printed at the bottom left of the piece was told to Alice Paul; in it, Burns acknowledged her fear, but never let that fear stop her from acting on her convictions.

All this happened just a little over 101 years ago. Burns joined the movement in 1906, and it wasn’t until 1920 that women were finally granted the right to vote. I find it shocking that my grandmother (who was born in 1906) was among the first generation of women to be allowed to vote, and hope we never take that hard-won right for granted.

This piece was part of the show Ultraviolet: Textile art revealing women’s issues. The message on this piece reads, “Injustice will be met with fierce and determined resistance.” Unfortunately, due to the nature of ultraviolet light, the message can only be viewed in person.

Stitched textile collage, 33″ h x 36″ w

This piece comes unframed, with a sleeve and a piece of wood that attaches to the wall.

In stock: 1
$3,500.00 USD $3,500.00 USD
Shipping calculated at checkout.
About my process

Unbridled and exuberant

Use this text to share brand information with your customers. Introduce a new product, share an announcement or welcome customers.

A Unique Work of Art

Each piece is one-of-a-kind, uniquely its own.

Aesthetic Storytelling

Each piece is created from a narrative or idea.

Hand-crafted

Darcy personally creates each artwork.
Fine Art Textiles

The Power of Collage

Concepts and ideas are what drive my creative work, whether I am making visual art or writing. I require a narrative or an idea upon which to hang the aesthetics. That’s one reason I was initially drawn to collage, with its startling power to illustrate the intangible. Collage allows me to give important elements their due, excise the insignificant, and re-create the world according to my own vision. I use fragments to create a whole, solid, and honest picture of the world.

While I still work with the stitched textile collage medium, a shift has caused me to look at other ways to express ideas. That modulation has led me to investigate sculptural forms, specifically those based on garments. Conceptualizing the Kevlar Kimono, with its many layers of meaning and controversial subject matter, was the first indication that I needed to defect – at least for a time ­– from collage. The ideas behind that piece were simply too big to be contained in a small framed artwork.

Whatever the topic and form of my work, I’m looking to ground those abstract ideas in the senses, giving the viewer enough clues within my work to expose him or her to an idea, or recall an experience or memory, much like a childhood matching game. Not everyone will take the time to look closely and understand, but those are the artworks I seek to create and to view.

— Darcy Falk

(Photo by John Running)

Darcy_Falk_Fine_Artist_Portrait.jpg