DRESDEN, Maine — For artist Jerri Whitman, a visit to the State House with her granddaughter changed everything.
Whitman had sent a letter to the Maine Arts Commission, hoping to be chosen to paint the portrait of Gov. Janet Mills, a decision that may not be made for another year or more.
But inside the State House, she found a surprise.
"I took my granddaughter to the Capitol to show her what I was hoping to do, and at the Capitol, I realized there are no women portraits here, other than Margaret Chase Smith.
The portrait of Sen. Smith hangs in the Hall of Flags. But in the rest of that space, and the halls of the State House, all the other portraits are of men. Former Governors, U.S. Senators, and representatives, dating back to Maine’s earliest years as a state. All are men.
"And I thought, how can I tell my granddaughter you can do anything you want and hang on these walls?" Whitman asked.
She asked a similar question when her state senator stopped by her house to campaign for re-election.
"Why are there no women on the State House walls, we are in the 2000s, 2020s, and it's still the same as in the 1800s and 1900s," Whitman said she asked the Senator. "'Why?' That was my question."
That’s when Whitman decided to take matters into her own hands and begin painting portraits of women who had been elected to the Maine Legislature, the U.S. House, and Seate.
She says that as of 2022, there had been 479 women elected to those seats.
Her small studio in Dresden now has one wall lined with a double row of portraits, and more sketched out, waiting for paint.
They range from well-known women, such as Governor Janet Mills, former Senate President and House Speaker Libby Mitchell, and former Senator Olympia Snowe, to others whose names are better recognized within the State House walls. Among the portraits is one of Dora Pinkham from Fort Kent, the first woman elected to the Maine Legislature. That was in 1922, just two years after women won the right to vote.
"I love them," Whitman said of the portraits, several still not quite completed. "The only time I look to see what side of the aisle they’re on is to make sure they are evenly represented."
It is a bipartisan, or non-partisan project, the artist said.
It's also one being paid for out of Whitman’s own pocket for canvas and paint. So far, no person or state program is paying her to paint the portraits.
Her plan is to get as many as 25 completed, and then show them at the State House during March, which is Women’s History Month.
She hopes seeing these portraits, and the ones she intends to keep painting, will help to teach Mainers about the important part women have played in our state and national government.
"We have come a long way, but you know what? If you look back you don’t see the history and that’s why this is so important," Whitman explained.
Important enough that she has stopped painting landscapes, which once dominated her artwork.
From now on, it will be portraits of those 479 Maine women, who helped shape the history of their state.
"This is my life’s work. I’m 58 years old, if I do nothing else but paint these women the rest of my life, to bring attention to what women bring to the table, I’m OK with that."
