In Ford Madox Brown’s Work, laborers dig up a London street while children, wealthy passersby, and people struggling to get by gather around them. Even the dogs have their place in the social order.
Brown, a painter often linked with the Pre-Raphaelites, placed working people at the center of this busy Victorian scene.
People of color are missing from Brown’s scene, which doesn’t reflect the diversity of our communities today, but painting still offers a way to think about how we live alongside one another.
With our recent U.S. election, Work prompts a clear idea for me: we share our streets with people whose lives and needs may be very different from our own, and voting is one way we shape that shared experience. The choices we make ripple outward, touching schools, libraries, public spaces, and the services that knit a neighborhood together.
Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon understood the importance of having a say. An artist whose circle included Elizabeth Siddal and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, she helped organize Britain’s women’s suffrage petition of 1866
In her lifetime, it took a great deal of work to claim a voice in public life. That history is why we shouldn’t cast our votes lightly or, even worse, opt out of casting a ballot at all.
And then there are the days between elections.
A library asks for volunteers. A neighbor could use a hand. A local meeting gathers on an evening when our couch calls more persuasively.
Daily life offers invitations to take part in our communities. We can create positive ripple effects when we pay attention to local decisions, not just national ones, and listen to those whose experiences don’t always match our own.
An election can leave us hopeful, disappointed, relieved, or simply tired, and those feelings create ripples too. So remember that while we may hold strong convictions, we should treat each other with dignity when we disagree.
Brown’s painting gathers a whole street into view. Our neighborhoods deserve that same attention, because we shape them through election season and into the quieter days that follow.
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