Something Worth Counting

I never imagined that something I created in my studio would one day become part of an elected official’s list of accomplishments. But there it was.

In an article announcing his reelection campaign, Gadsden City Councilman Chris Robinson included helping acquire my work for permanent display at the Kiwanis Pavilion among the things he was proud to have helped accomplish during his tenure.

That stopped me for a minute.

As artists, we spend so much time wondering where the work will go. Will someone connect with it? Will it find a home? Will the feeling we put into it reach anyone beyond the studio? Then one day, you read that someone considers bringing your work into their community an accomplishment worth putting their name beside.

That is an incredible feeling.

Not All Sacrifice Is Named began as something deeply personal. Now it has a permanent place in Gadsden, where people can encounter it in their own time and bring their own experiences to it. Seeing its acquisition mentioned alongside improvements to parks and public spaces made me appreciate what that means. My work has become part of what someone helped build for a community.

There is a quiet kind of validation in that. Beyond the sale, beyond the unveiling, there is the realization that someone is still pointing to your work and saying, “I helped make that happen.”

If my artwork is one of the boxes someone checks when looking back on what they accomplished, I am proud to be that box. I know what went into making it. Seeing someone else count bringing it home among the things they are proud of means more than I quite know how to say.