Add black ribbons to those safety pins, Seattle artist says

After the November election, many people started wearing safety pins on their lapels.

It’s a visible sign of their support for people who might feel threatened by the Trump administration.

One Seattle artist wants to attach a black ribbon to those pins.

Ellen Sollod says for a week after Donald Trump won the election, she was in a deep funk. She even questioned her role as an artist.

SOLLOD: “What is the point of this? And could an artist do?”

But then she remembered something Pablo Picasso once said.

SOLLOD: “Art is not made to decorate apartments. It’s an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy.”

So Sollod decided to start making small black ribbons. They look like the red or pink lapel ribbons that AIDS and breast cancer awareness activists wear.

But these ribbons are black, to symbolize her state of mourning the election’s outcome, and her resolve to work for political change. On her website, she writes:

I created this in response to my deep sadness for our country stemming from the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election. I am girded for the battles to come. Of particular concern to me are civil rights, the environment and women’s reproductive rights. What are yours?

She’s not selling the ribbons; they’re free to anyone who contacts her.

Sollod hopes people will start making their own:

SOLLOD: “You know what I would love? I’d love for there to be sewing circles! If more and more people will make them, then more and more will get out.”

Sollod plans to wear her black ribbon when she marches on Washington in January.