This is a five color reduction linoleum block and woodblock print. This is also a part of the mutual aid series starring anthropomorphic cats. Other prints in this series include “Mend”, “Harvest”, “Moon Garden”, and “Foraging for Food”. This image is out of print.
Another early collage from 2004/2005. This is a simple geometric exploration of the female form through collage. The soft contours of women cut from a fashion magazine are juxtaposed with the hand printed, rigid, geometric print patterns that allude to torso, head, feet, and shoulders. The accompanying maps allude to the idea of Body Mapping and the geometric lines of her body are akin to streets on a city map. Also inspired by Hannah Hoch’s early feminist collages from women’s fashion magazines.
This is an early collage from 2002-2003. Made with found blank purchase orders from a burned down warehouse in Pittsburgh and cut up National Geographic Magazines and women’s fashion magazines. This is a part of a series of early collages I made that was working to address issues of body image and the commodification of women. Specifically with this piece I was trying to use the face of an elephant to represent the woman’s view of herself (as large and disproportionate) while her actual body is thin and tall. The use of the pudding as a skirt is where “reality” and “fantasy” merge/melt into one. The macaroon in her fork is temptation, and the motion of her heels kicking in the air is an attempt to buck away society’s expectation of her maintaining a svelte figure, and to do as she pleases.
This is a one color print on rice paper. In pieces of string the words “autonomy”, “mutual aid” and “community” are written.
This is an early collage from 2004/2005. With this print I was really trying to deconstruct the use in our culture of gender binaries. Animals are often used as metaphors for humans- often men are described as dogs and women as pussycats, so I wanted to use these animals as a part of this narrative. Both creatures in this collage are standing atop cakes in a nod to those plastic figurines that are often placed upon wedding cakes, and each has a tiara on their head. The dog wears a camera which I wanted to use to reference both the male gaze and also the use of the camera as a recorder of specific events at specific times. The cat is wearing a spiraling building partly to reference place and home but also to create a sense of an endless cycle in the way that housework can become a monotonous repetition of maintenance. Both characters bodies are composed of multiple elements which are meant to confuse and be in contradiction to the reading which may begin to be interpreted from just the heads of each character. Through creating bodies which have elements of masculine and feminine I hope to deconstruct the idea of hetero-normative gender binary. Formally inspired by Dada, this collage plays homage to the act of rejection of modern society, and in particular our society’s outdated standards of beauty, gender, and identity which continue to dominate the American landscape.
One figure holds a stick which she is about to prod into another figure, while underneath them two smaller figures are already engaged in a heated altercation. The main figure stands upon a city highway which acts as a helmet for a person resting with closed eyes. This peaceful figure represents mother nature. It’s world is being disrupted but is also being soothed and nurtured by the human hand. I was exploring the human relationships of conflict and power and how the way in which we treat each other transforms our larger world. This is an early collage made up of found images. 2004/2005.
This is a print collage made from woodblock and linoleum block prints. The two mountain goats are poised facing each other practicing non-verbal communication. I wanted to celebrate those moments when two people are thinking about each other at the same moment and reach out to one another. Some times our communication is mediated through electronic devices, so this print is a celebration of those times when we transcend the need of using an external device to communicate to someone we love.
This is an early collage where I was transitioning away from found material and moving into cutting up prints for collage. This collage combines printed elements with pages from a book. Created during 2004/2005. Collages I made at this time were playing around with the idea of creating through the use of pairing deconstruction of pre-existing images with the creation of new images. The process was meant to reflect the idea of creating an alternate world through the use of recycling existing ideas that work and pairing them with new pathways. I was reading a book called “The Struggle Towards Utopia” which discusses the artwork of Russian avant garde artists Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky, and László Moholy-Nagy post World War I. The writing focuses on the relationship between art and social change, and these artists’ social ideals and the political realities that emerged after the Russian Revolution.
This is a fun collage sketch made of scraps of linoleum block and woodblock prints and colored paper. Inspired largely by Russian Constructivist artists Varvara Stepanova and Alexander Rodchenko.
This is a print collage utilizing linoleum block and spray paint stenciled prints. Two bears sit on the outskirts of a city, appearing to be without a home and sitting with their only possession- a potted plant. The clocks on their faces reference the passage of time which seems to be winding infinitely along a circular axis of forever and yet taking place at no time in particular. Time is static though their predicament is very present. This print was made after a round of many housing evictions when many of my friends and myself were passing through several unstable housing situations, partly due to the housing market becoming more and more inflated. I wanted to reference the idea of musical chairs, where once the song starts, all of us have to get up and move, and when the music stops, there is one less chair, or one less house upon which for us to sit. 2004/2005.
