In addition to my work in social justice, I have always painted: portraits, figurative art, fruit and vegetables in motion. I enjoy painting couples, juxtaposing their faces and the dynamics of their relationship. One of these portraits is of Carl Djerrassi, one of the inventors of the birth control pill, whom I befriended when we attempted to get support for importing mifepristone (the abortion pill) directly to California, using a law established during the AIDS crisis. Carl and his wife, Diane Middlebury, loved the painting, invited me to lunch to choose a space, and to hang the painting in their apartment. Since Carl was also a well-known art collector and the sponsor of the Djerrassi Resident Artist Program in Northern California, I thought my breakthrough moment as an artist had arrived. It had not, and I returned to my social justice work.

As I enter a new phase of my life, I am devoting myself to political art. Aside from some classes and workshops with Northern California artists like Fred Reichman and Larry Thomas, I have no formal training in art. As a Catholic, I have seen thousands of images of Jesus crucified. As a child in church, I tried to imagine the pain and sensations of dying nailed to the cross. As an adult working in abortion clinics and for abortion rights in countries all over the world, I witnessed the oppression of women and the denial of their reproductive autonomy. It occurred to me that millions of women have been crucified, literally or symbolically. I have started this series, “Women Crucified” to create images of women on the cross, struggling to free themselves. Each painting honors a woman with her grace, her glory, and her beauty.

My dream is that these images will be used in political, literary, and artistic contexts to remind viewers of the pain women have and continue to suffer because they carry the biological responsibility of propagating the human species, and to honor and celebrate them.