Victory! by Mylinda Farr
Artist Statement
Flanked with the Texas state capitol’s Lady Liberty on one side and rail transportation on the other, Nona, “Nonie,” B. Mahoney stands with a suitcase full of the Dallas women’s names who signed the petiton, proclaiming they deserved suffrage at the state 1918 primaries. This petition met the challenge of Dallas’ Representative Judge Barry Miller, who had asked for 5,000 names only a little less than a week prior in Austin to show women craved the vote. Returning to the capitol, via train, after working to gather proof in Dallas, Nonie “arrived at the door of the House with a heavy suitcase. She was immediately escorted to the speaker’s stand where she drew from the case and unfolded before the interested gaze of the Judge and his assembled associates, a petition containing the names, not alone of the required 5,000 but of 10,000 of his townswomen!” Nonie concluded, “This is the biggest suffrage victory that has ever been won by the South.”
Sources: Texas newspapers and Citizens At Last, A. Elizabeth Taylor
Mylinda Farr Artist Bio
Ways to experiment with various mediums takes over my daydreaming as I desire to discover various techniques in oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal and graphite. I am drawn to historical stories and figures, wildflowers, horses and cowboys taken from the everyday surroundings of nature and animals of my family’s small ranch in East Texas. I grew up in a Texas Panhandle wheat farming community where my mother, a dynamic inspiration, owned the only hobby shop in the region (behind our house) offering a variety of classes like tole-painting, restoring antique trunks, and making resin grape lamps. My life ventured forward as I spent a year in Jerusalem, followed by living in the southwest and Old East Dallas. I tackled an MBA early on in my career but now fill my time pursuing creative endeavors, like art and music, researching history and spending time with my family.
My current artistic passion is drawing and painting single flower and macro botanical shapes – especially lupines, such as bluebonnets – on large-scaled paper and canvas with a geometrical bent.