Early on election night last November, artist Bunny Burson looked to New York City’s Javits Center ceiling, expecting confetti to fall to celebrate Hillary Clinton becoming the nation's first woman president. But the confetti never fell.
Crushed by Clinton’s loss to President Donald Trump, Burson began an almost two-week journey to track down the confetti, which she thought would make great material for artwork.
She used the confetti to turn a window at Bruno David Gallery in Clayton into a massive snow globe titled “And Still I Rise.” Her purpose? To flip Clinton’s defeat into inspiration for women and girls.
“This is my metaphor for the future because I think that it is to inspire and to motivate and to empower young women and little girls to be bold to dream big to break their own glass ceilings and to hopefully finally break that highest, hardest one,” Burson said referring to the presidency.
Listen to Burson discuss how her work relates to shattering "the highest and hardest" glass ceiling.
Burson has been a Clinton supporter for years. She served as executive director of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in President Bill Clinton's administration and as part of Hillary Clinton’s Missouri Steering Committee.
Burson's commitment to progressive politics remains unquelled since Trump’s election. She hopes to grow her project, inspired by Maya Angelou's volume of poetry, to motivate women before the 2018 elections — and help raise support for progressive candidates.
“We need to think about all of these rights that we have sort of gotten used to, which we may not always have — women's rights, voting rights — that elections have consequences serious consequences and that we need to stay engaged,” she said.
“And Still I Rise” is on display through Aug. 12 at Bruno David Gallery, 7513 Forsythe Blvd., Clayton.
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