What inspired you to revisit Rosie the Riveter? And what motivated you to update her in the ways that you did?

I’m a knitter and I knit several pussy hats for myself and for my friends to wear to the [Women’s] March. Watching all of my friends and strangers sharing their Instagram stories of knitting hat after hat was incredible. The act of making the symbol brought unity to the event even before it began. Therefore, I knew that the hat would be a symbol of the woman’s movement.

So on the Monday following the march, I sat down and started thinking about the art I wanted to make in response to my own experience on Saturday as well as the collective experience of women nationally and worldwide. I adored seeing the images flooding in of the sea of women (and men) in pink hats. So much pink! I saw a headline from a newspaper that read “She the People” and I thought, “She The People: The revolution will be handmade.” I started thinking how there was this effort on the part of women to create a symbol for the march. It felt reminiscent of World War II when women rationed silk stockings in order to have enough material for the soldiers’ parachutes. How women knit for the soldiers and filled in at the factories while the men were away at war. Just like how we are reclaiming the word “pussy,” the hat is also a symbol of our history in our country ― we are knitting something for the new “war effort” to fight for our rights as women. We are knitting for ourselves.

As a result, I turned to Rosie as a symbol to convey the transformation we have taken from the times of WWII. I made Rosie a woman of color, because as an artist I feel it’s my job to paint diversity. I recently read how important it is for children, especially for children of color, to see images of Barack Obama in their schools. So I concluded, why not give girls of color, and everyone for that matter, an image of a Rosie with brown skin. It was just a no brainer ― I want to paint Rosie as a symbol of the Women’s March and she should look like this.

When The New Yorker commissioned an image for “The March” issue, did [editors] ask for any visual details or messaging in particular?

I actually reached out to Françoise Mouly of The New Yorker. My Rosa Parks portrait was in her Women’s March newspaper, Resist. I had this idea on Monday, quickly sketched it up, added some paint and sent it to them on a total whim. They got back to me and said yes, we’d like to see more sketches. So after emailing them multiple sketches, and two different finished portraits, they asked for me to send the art to them via FedEx on Wednesday night and they called me on Thursday night and said it was officially a “go” and they would release it on Friday.

And I ugly cried and my kids were like, “Dad what’s wrong with Mom?” And he said, “It’s happy tears. This is a good thing, Your mom has wanted this for a long time.” So it’s been a whirlwind week career-wise. I’ve wanted to paint covers for The New Yorker for years, and here is my first cover, it’s a dream come true!