Alice Paul: The Right to Be Counted
oil on canvas
18 x 14
This painting honors Alice Paul, a visionary suffragette whose quiet determination helped reshape the American promise. As a principal architect of the 19th Amendment, Paul devoted her life to the radical belief that democracy must include women—not as an afterthought, but as equals.
Positioned before the U.S. Capitol and framed by the American flag, Alice Paul stands not in the shadows of history, but in its full light. The ballot being cast beside her is both an action and an echo—a gesture that carries the weight of decades of protest, imprisonment, hunger strikes, and unwavering resolve. It represents a right not bestowed, but claimed.
Rather than portraying Paul as a distant historical icon, this work seeks to capture her humanity: her composure, her resolve, and her faith in a future she knew she might never fully see. The monumental structure behind her contrast with her calm presence, underscoring a central truth of American progress—that lasting change often begins with individuals willing to stand, persist, and endure.
Created to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary, this painting invites reflection on the unfinished nature of American freedom. Alice Paul’s legacy reminds us that the ideals enshrined at the country’s founding were expanded not through ease or consensus, but through courage. Her story asks us to consider whose voices have shaped the nation, whose were silenced, and how the act of participation itself remains both a right and a responsibility.
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