Gloria

Acrylic on canvas 2026
24 × 24 in.

Gloria began with photographs of Gloria Steinem speaking in the early 1970s.

In July 1971, Steinem was among the organizers of the founding conference of the National Women’s Political Caucus in Washington, D.C. More than 300 women from 26 states attended, with the new organization focused on increasing women's participation and influence in American politics.

It was there, on July 10, that Steinem delivered her Address to the Women of America. Center for American Women and Politics

This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. Sex and race, because they are easy, visible differences, have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups, and into the cheap labor on which this system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen, or those earned. We are really talking about humanism.

— Gloria Steinem, Address to the Women of America, July 10, 1971 Speaking While Female

Gloria Steinem speaking in the early 1970s. Archival photograph.

My painting isn't an attempt to reproduce a single photograph. It is a stylized interpretation of Steinem during this period, built through engineered planes and soft geometry. I pushed the color and pattern of her clothing, the blue of her glasses, and the extraordinary streaks of her hair while allowing her profile to remain comparatively still.

The microphone is there, but it isn't really the subject.

What stayed with me was the last sentence of that 1971 passage:

“We are really talking about humanism.”

More than fifty years later, it is difficult for me to look at these images without thinking about how much has changed—and how familiar some of the conversation still feels.

I began by painting Gloria Steinem.

Somewhere along the way, I became more interested in what Gloria was saying.

Gloria.

Ruth’s Song

While painting Gloria, I learned more about Steinem’s mother, Ruth—a part of her story I had never known. It changed the way I thought about the woman I was painting.

I wrote about that discovery in “Ruth’s Song — On Painting Gloria Steinem.”

→ Read Ruth’s Song — On Painting Gloria Steinem on Substack

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