Full Size Lady Justice, originally uploaded by Lcalvin1965.Lady Justice has her roots in Greek and Roman mythology. She is said to be the personification of divine rightness of law. Lady Justice is portrayed in many ways – sometimes blindfolded, always holding the scales of justice and most times holding a sword.
My Lady Justice, whose name is “She…” incorporates many of the traditional symbols – the sword, the scales, her foot crushing the snake on the book of law. However, “She” is not traditional. “She” is brown, “She” is sexy and strong.
My friend Laura Laforge painted this portrait of Lady Justice. I wanted Lady Justice to be bold, vibrant, modern and of color. Often women of color are portrayed in art very ethnocentrically. Frequently, women of color are depicted singing in a jazz club, suckling a baby to a breast or carrying bowls on their heads through a vast desert. Not this time! It’s time that artists recognize that women of color, are….well, WOMEN. We are contemporary, gritty, strong, fashionable, vulnerable and real. We are more than icons or the subjects of ethnic prints hung in a carefully decorated “culturally-themed” room.
You can find more art by Laura Laforge at www.lauralaforge.com
On and On by Linda Calvin 
And no one is grittier or more beautiful than you, Linda.
Iconoclasty rules!