In October, Arkansas celebrated its ratification of the 19th Amendment, making it the 12th state to approve of legislation giving women the right to vote.  Little Rock’s Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden unveiled a women’s suffrage monument by Jane DeDecker, FNSS.

DeDecker’s work, Every Word We Utter, is based on the concept of a droplet of water, called the daughter droplet, falling into the water, gaining height, and then returning to the water in a coalescent cascade. It depicts six major figures in the suffrage movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Alice Paul and Harriot Stanton Blatch.

DeDecker was inspired by a letter from Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Lucretia Mott in which she wrote about the power of words and deeds: “Every word we utter, every act we perform, waft unto innumerable circles, beyond.” DeDecker wanted to capture the collective energy from all women who were part of the Suffragists movement and beyond.