New portrait, from thousands of crayon lines, unveiled of fallen CMPD officer
Nearly a year after the death of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Mia Goodwin, a portrait honoring her hangs in the halls of the University City police station.
Goodwin had just returned from maternity leave when she was killed on Dec. 22, 2021. Two semi-trucks collided on Interstate 85, then crashed into several CMPD vehicles. Goodwin and other officers were assisting with traffic after an earlier wreck, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
She was 33, a mother of three, and a six-year veteran of CMPD.
Jamie Franki, a recently retired UNCC professor of illustration and a well-known Charlotte-area artist, spent months creating the piece. Franki has worked on Olympic coaching medals, created a nickel still in circulation, and for a time, designed tombstones, he told the Observer.
CMPD officers helped Franki by providing photos and memories of Goodwin to incorporate into the piece. One thing that stood out to him was her pride in her family and maiden name and the fact that her fellow officers nicknamed her “Fig.” To show this in his piece, Franki has Goodwin’s two name tags displayed prominently — one with her maiden name, Figueroa, and the other with her married name.
Franki named the piece “Say Her Name.”
“Say her name” is an important phrase or chant used during protests surrounding the issue of police brutality, especially after the death of Breonna Taylor, who police shot and killed in Louisville in March 2020. The Black Lives Matter movement frequently uses the phrase and chant to honor and bring recognition to others who have been killed by police, including George Floyd, who was killed by Minneapolis police in 2020.
Franki said he sees the protest cry, “say her name” as respect for those who have fallen. He said it isn’t his intention to make a political or ideological statement in using the chant. He said he understands its significance and is supportive.
The Observer asked Franki about the juxtaposition of using a term coined by the Black Lives Matter movement for a portrait honoring a police officer. “It seems like people find those parallels and those parallels draw a lot of interest,” he said. “But it’s not the focus of my intention.”
“I wanted people to say her name, not only to respect her service, and to mourn her passing, but to remember her life, and her color, and her great vibrance and her family and her friendship and sense of humor,” Franki said.
Portrait of Mia Goodwin
Goodwin’s portrait was modeled after a photo of her taken for CMPD when she was pregnant with her third child. Franki said he believes this helps to capture her motherhood.
Behind the portrait of Goodwin is a view of the city of Charlotte and her police cruiser covered in a U.S. flag and flowers from her loved ones and the city. Look closely and you can see a fire station with a flag at half mast. Goodwin’s husband is a Charlotte firefighter and Franki wanted to include him in the piece.
The art itself is made up of thousands of lines, many of which are drawn with crayons to represent her children. The layering of the lines forms a collage Franki believes captures the spirit of who Goodwin was and how she is remembered in the community.
“All of those strokes are sort of like everybody else, her colleagues are strokes, her constituents, Charlotteans that she would protect, her family, her friends, all of these strokes in her picture are from those lines,” Franki said.
Franki made the lines on her uniform more bold and prominent than the others in the piece. He told the Observer this is to represent what a tough thing a police uniform is.
Shortly after the unveiling of the piece, as officers were sharing more memories of Goodwin, Franki was struck again by the realization that the uniforms should exude power and durability.
“I found myself hugging several police officers and was struck by the Kevlar that they had underneath,” Franki said. “These are people who put it on the line every day that they are out there.”
CMPD offered to pay Franki an honorarium for the piece, but he instead plans to give the money to the family when they gather for a ceremony to see the art for the one-year anniversary of her death.
“I just wanted to be part of a local memory that is important,” Franki said. “These are people wrapped in black, and Kevlar, and armed and they got big hearts and they hurt too.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2022 at 1:07 PM.
