Hidden Figures

Helping hands,
hidden.
in a world divided.
An ode to strong women who keep fighting for love and living for joy.
Co-exist in an unequal world no more.
Stand up believe make the change, smash darkness and embrace love.
Life and society sometimes feel broken.
As do we all.
Transform.

The quote by Beatrix Potter was sewn onto the antique collar by Wyoming artist and free motion quilter Mary Koenig. “With opportunity the world is very interesting.”

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe by Glynis Ridley was part of my inspiration for this piece. Her life, her dreams, her goals, still all to similar to women of modern days.

Jeanne Baret was a working-class assistant to a naturalist on an expedition that left in 1766, and returned to France in 1775. She was born a peasant and became an “herb woman” in a time where botany was the realm of men. Her scientific contributions were quietly dismissed and written out of history until recently, allowing for her story to blossom almost 250 years later.

In 1771 Captain Bougainville published journals about the expedition and only one paragraph mentions Baret. The plant Bougainvillea is named after him and the blossoms are in my sculpture.

She retuned to France on a french vessel 1774 or 1775, becoming the first woman to circumnavigate the globe.

Hidden Figures

Antique collar and collar box, thread, flowers, cast wax, acrylic paint, beads, buttons

17″ x 8.5″ x 5″

$3,200