Portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg on View in Edmonton

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Shana Wilson paints Ruth Bader Ginsburg for Time magazine.

A portrait of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg that Edmonton artist Shana Wilson painted for Time magazine is on display in the front window of the Peter Robertson Gallery in Edmonton.

The magazine commissioned the portrait for a special edition last March about trailblazing women. Ginsburg, an American supreme court justice, was a towering figure. Appointed in 1993 by former president Bill Clinton, she took a progressive stance on important social issues such as abortion rights, same-sex marriage, immigration and affirmative action.

"Just to be the tiniest part of her extraordinary legacy that she has left for us to all carry on is honestly the most humbling thing in my entire life," Wilson told CBC News.

Ginsburg's death on Sept. 18, less than seven weeks before the American election, has started a political storm over replacing her before voters go to the polls.

Wilson, one of three artists with connections to Edmonton to paint portraits for the magazine, received a call out of the blue from Time, which had noticed her work online. She also painted a portrait of Jacqueline Kennedy for the magazine.

Meanwhile, New York-based artist Tim Okamura, who grew up near Edmonton, painted a portrait of American writer Toni Morrison. The gallery says that portrait was purchased by American film director Spike Lee.

A third artist, Lauren Crazybull, painted Wilma Mankiller, an Indigenous rights activist from the Cherokee Nation.

Time named a Man of the Year for decades — usually a president or a titan of industry — before changing its annual award to Person of the Year in 1999.

Other women featured by the magazine in its journey back through history included Madonna, Golda Meir and Princess Diana. 

Source: Peter Robertson Gallery, CBC