Seattle artist Marie Gagnon (the viaduct painter soon moving to the East Coast, unfortch), also happens to work at the Pride Foundation, and she sent me a note this morning.

Yesterday I arrived with my coworkers at the Capitol in Olympia to witness the historic Senate vote on SB 6239 for marriage equality. It was a powerful experience and I hope to share more about it after I’m rested. (I've been working 12 plus hour days this week.)

But very late last night as soon as I uploaded my photos and saw this particular photo I immediately thought of one of my all time favorite paintings, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit by my art god, John Singer Sargent. I studied his use of whites quite a bit during my research fellowship in the late '90s.

In addition to the similar composition, I was powerfully struck by the idea behind the two pieces: Anticipation.

The painting has a sense of four young girls possibly unaware of their anticipation for their burgeoning maturity whereas my photo depicts a conscious anticipation for the evolving maturity of our society as we work to embrace greater justice for all people.

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  • Marie Gagnon

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  • John Singer Sargent