feel I could put in the time required. Then I found m
I wasn't going to enter this contest, because it just seemed too epically demanding and I didn't feel I could put in the time required. Then I found myself being inspired. By children, by education and learning, by those same children being our future and our hope. So I decided to approach this as an educational toile to inspire tots everywhere. You'll find a tree of knowledge with voraciously reading children at their desks in the branch tops. A vignette dedicated to women's right to vote, with tips of the hat to Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Jeannette Rankin. Another scene paying homage to the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s, with salutes to Rosa Louise McCauley Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., along with a lesser known excerpt from his famous speech that spoke directly about children as our future, which also just seemed perfect for this design. And along with a nod to Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, the toile is also sprinkled with flying birds and magical stars of hope, all in pastoral-like classroom settings. There are so many incredible historical moments and figures; I'm afraid I couldn't do any of them the justice they deserve, so my apologies for that. I'm dedicating this toile specifically to new dear friend and wee child in the world, Ellis Wren, born on January 8, 2011. Although he's had a rough start at birth, he's working his way toward being a fully healthy babe that will get to go home with his mom and dad very soon. He embodies the kind of future that I had in mind when I drew this. He is the hope and inspiration I have that will finally free humanity from civil rights strife and struggles that have been all too many in the past and present. The future is with our children.