I’ve often been asked ‘who are the artists that inspire you?’ and I’m afraid that my influences are more often than not- not artists. Especially not artists in my ‘genre’. I’m sheepish to admit that I’ve never delved too deeply into the who’s-who of abstract artists. So when I am asked to tally off my top influences… the list is a tad perplexing.

I want to take a moment to explore one of my biggest influences- Eleanor Roosevelt. Now, many people today imagine Eleanor as the mundane, prudish, no-nonsense woman from the Victorian Era. I had to stop myself from encapsulating her person into an appearance-based, cursory opinion of this former First Lady. About a decade ago, I began reading her autobiography out of sheer boredom while on bed rest. And any ideas I had (deeply rooting in my egotistical opinion that the current American society is the most evolved version) quickly fell away as I became acquainted with the woman who would become a firm role model for me and shape the way I raised my children.

I’ve never met Eleanor Roosevelt, obviously. However, if time-travel is ever an option for me- she’s one of the first people I’d sit down with for tea.

Regardless of my being born almost a century too late- she has impacted and inspired me, she’s caused me to do better in my own life. I’ve delved further into her life by reading her autobiography, the truest account of a person: their own words.

She endured. Death, loss, public criticism, illnesses, the war, the Great Depression- she endured it all. And she thrived. She was poised and diplomatic, tactful and graceful- and she also refused to let her status as a woman dictate her boundaries. She broke barriers that former First Ladies didn’t have the guts to challenge.

She was met with much criticism for her presence in the political realm, for using her voice and platform to influence positive change, and for disregarding certain social conventions. She was an accomplished journalist and public speaker… in the early 1900’s. Think about that for a second. Most people today aren’t aware that Eleanor drafted the United Nation’s first Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Many people today are also unaware that she was a driving force behind the 1934 Costigan-Wagner Bill that made lynching illegal. She spent countless hours working for the American Red Cross and Navy hospitals during the war, her diary entries reflecting working before dawn to late into the night. She was a driving force behind abolishing child labor and child slave labor. She opposed her own husband regarding concentration camps or internment camps for Japanese-Americans. She redefined what it meant to be a First Lady by rejecting the ‘backdrop’ role and taking an actively engaged, brave, and highly impacting role through her political platform. She was an All-American New York woman who strived to make as much impact and do as much good as possible during her time alive.

After learning as much as I could about her and seeing, decades later, the lasting impact she has had in forming America- I’m regarding her as a personal influence. Someone that I consider a role model, someone I greatly respect. Because of her, I’m less engaged with traditional goals of the art industry- such as world-wide fame and being a millionaire or billionaire. I’m interested in utilizing my platform as an artist to be a force of good during my time alive.