In 2019, the Board of Supervisors introduced a motion directing the Women and Girls Initiative to collaborate with the Department of Arts and Culture to commission artists to create commemorative artworks for the Centennial Celebration of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Six artists, including Andrea Monroe, Amy Smith, Clarence J. Williams III, Laura Vasquez Rodriguez, Moses X Ball, and Ragni Agarwal, were selected to design artwork for this project. The resulting artworks reflect a diversity of women and perspectives and highlight themes such as empowerment, civic engagement, resiliency, and the right to vote. Each artwork will be installed at various facilities throughout LA County for the public to enjoy and inspire residents to vote. The artworks were also reproduced as a limited run of posters available to the public and County departments and three designs were selected to be reproduced as limited-edition library cards and bookmarks. In Andrea Monroe’s celebratory painting, a modern-day woman stands arm-in-arm with a Suffragist at a women’s rights march. Her painting conveys the joy of past achievements while acknowledging that the fight for equal rights, equal pay, and autonomy over their bodies has not been won for women. And so the march continues.

Andrea Monroe was born in Chicago, Illinois to second generation Lithuanian parents. She was often found doodling patterns and animals to pass the time as a girl Primarily a self-taught artist, Andrea has worked as a fashion photographer’s studio manager, model, bookkeeper, retail fashion buyer, and has had a thirty-year career in the film industry as a costumer. After the birth of her son in 1998, Andrea began to paint. Nature, feminine energy, and emotion dictate the direction of her paintings, with bursts of color, a collage of shapes and lines, and a message bringing the viewer closer in to ponder, wonder, and enjoy. To learn more, visit: https://www.andreamonroe.com/