Nevertheless, She Persisted

You guys, a funny thing happened yesterday. I was looking at news coverage of the Sessions confirmation hearing the previous night and saw the phrase used by Mitch McConnell to strike down Elizabeth Warren. “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” It spoke to me… especially the last part. Regardless of how it was used, it screamed “rallying cry” to me. I decided to make a Facebook cover image and share it with a couple friends.

ETA: I have decided to remove the free files from my site because of the number of people and/or companies stealing my artwork to sell it under their own name. This is why we can’t have nice things.

The response was overwhelmingly positive and encouraging, with friends (and friends of friends) asking if they could use it as well. Obviously I said yes. I’m so happy to share art, especially if it speaks to someone like it did to me. Because of the response, I decided to share it with the local Pantsuit chapter group on Facebook. And holy cow, did it take off. The likes and comments poured in. People were asking if I planned to do shirts, mugs or prints.

Short answer? No. I wasn’t thinking about that at all… then. I was floored by the amount of attention this little piece of art — that I designed in about 10 minutes over my breakfast yesterday morning — was getting. Folks shared it to Twitter and it was liked and RT’d tons of times. I won’t bore you with stats. But my inner geek is loving all of them. 😉 Even my blog traffic picked up — about 5x a normal day — because my URL is watermarked on the image.

In the midst of all this craziness early on, I decided I wanted this for my computer wallpaper AND my iPhone wallpaper. If you’re interested in either of those, you can download them and use them, too! Click on the images below to go to the full res versions. But, please, just use these for your personal use. Don’t be sketchy and sell items with my design on it. It’s not cool.

ETA: I have decided to remove the free files from my site because of the number of people and/or companies stealing my artwork to sell it under their own name. This is why we can’t have nice things.

As the image continued to go viral — seriously, friends from other states shared screenshots with me showing that the image was being shared in *their* local activist groups (and they weren’t the ones who did the sharing) — I realized there was something here and I needed to act on it. When I got home from work, I started working on designs for tote bags, coffee mugs, phone cases, art prints… (Click on the photo to be taken to the item in my store!)

Even if you’re not interested in buying any of these items yourself, I’d appreciate any shares you can give me. Use the free digital goodies and share those with your friends. I can’t tell you how much I’m loving seeing them all over Facebook and Twitter. Have an idea for another item I should add? Let me know!

If you were in on the early sharing, THANK YOU so much. I can’t believe how much attention this little piece of art is getting. I’m overwhelmed and humbled.