Artwork / Archives / 2017 / Because Because Because Because! Because of the [Horrible] Things [the Patriarchy] Does!

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This is my portrait of Professor Anita Hill, the woman who stood up to Clarence Thomas and the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, showing us all how to speak truth to power.

The text in this painting is a real exchange that took place during the confirmation hearings for Thomas’ appointment to the Supreme Court. Hill had been invited to testify about how her former boss, then-Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Clarence Thomas, had sexually harassed her, but Senator Alan Simpson and his fellow committee members ended up questioning Hill’s character instead.

Simpson asks:

“If what you say this man said to you occurred...why in God’s name would you ever speak to a man like that the rest of your life?”

Hill responds:

“That’s a very good question. And I am sure that I cannot answer that to your satisfaction.”

These hearings happened when I was ten years old. Though I didn’t understand the gravity of it all then, I do remember the whispered conversations of adults about some of the more obscene elements of Thomas’ harassment. And I’ll never forget hearing kids talking about pubic hair while sharing a can of soda at lunchtime.

The events of that day shaped my life and the lives of all Americans. Over these last several decades on the Court, Thomas has worked steadily to dismantle our rights and give ever more power to the billionaire lobbyists who lavish him with secret gifts.

I was inspired by the #MeToo movement to paint Hill’s resistance and persistence. This video shows the making of the portrait and explains why I painted Hill as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.