All of my paintings have a story. Nothing comes from thin air.

“Princess Jasmine as Amelia Earhart” stemmed in my brain, out of my painting “Snow White as Rosie the Riveter”.

On a trip to Disney  World with my sisters, we joked about how Disney ruined our lives (sarcasm!) because the movies set such unrealistic expectations of what being a woman would mean for us…. How easy it would be to talk to birds and squirrels.
That fairy godmothers would help us clean up any huge messes we made.
That Prince Charming not only existed, but that he was looking for us at that very moment.
That we needed saving.

Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to be every one of the princesses when I was little. I wore dresses like theirs, and knew the words to all the songs they sang, and I do LOVE them in spite of their flaws. They were a representation of the time, and they have come a long way since.

From this piece, and these ideas, my Women of Influence series was born.
It is a series of paintings repurposing damsels as women who did something with their lives, who dreamed big, who took charge, who did not wait around for Prince Charming to come find them.

Before I was even finished painting Snow White, Jasmine was in my head as “up next”.

Princess Jasmine held a very special place in my heart because she was not white, and neither am I. She was the Princess I could dress as for halloween. She was the doll that I could play with who also had black hair.  She was surrounded by jewels in an exotic land. She had a TIGER.
When trying to decide which woman in history Jasmine would be, I thought about her personality, her stubbornness,  her humble nature, and magic carpet rides.

Amelia Earhart was absolutely 100% who she needed to be. Amelia was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and helped to start the Ninenty-Nines, an organization supporting female pilots.  Amelia did not need prince charming to show her the world, or give her permission, she did that for herself.

I decided that this series should be recognizably both people. Snow White is very obviously so, she also very obviously Rosie the Riveter. I try to hold true to the iconic image, and simply change out the details of the woman.

Since Jasmine is so colorful, and this iconic photo of Amelia is black and white, I played around with a sepia concept, and I believe it served the painting well.

The original 12×12″ Painting of Jasmine is not sold, and I haven’t made and swag, yet. I would like to get four of these completed so that I can show them as a set and a series.

The Women of Influence series is currently :
Snow White as Rosie the Riveter
Princess Jasmine as Amelia Earhart
Cinderella as Ruth Bader Ginsberg (STILL IN PROGRESS)
I guess I need some ideas for who will be the fourth Princess/Badass mashup.