ARTIST STATEMENT
 

My art practice is a place of deep self-reflection where I examine the privileges I carry as a white cis-gendered woman. My artwork is part of my anti-racism practice, an outward expression of an inner dialogue with whiteness. It is a place where I explore and practice antidotes to white supremacy cultural characteristics, as defined by Tema Okun in her widely circulated and recently updated article “White Supremacy Culture - Still Here.”  Through photography, embroidery, and performance art, I urge viewers to join me in sitting with these complex subjects and imagining alternative ways of being. 

Using cotton, a material that all of us interact with daily, I explore the violent history of racism and colonialism and how the traces of these systemic atrocities remain present in our world. The universal use of cotton inarguably connects us all to uncomfortable truths of inequity and injustice, both past and present. Playing with traditional arts and objects associated with domesticity and femininity, I examine how white women have upheld white supremacy culture in the past. By revealing this legacy, my artwork highlights the necessary work for white women to imagine and embody a more just and compassionate alternative. Embroidery has been used to subvert patriarchal expectations of women. My embroidery work presses women to join me in engaging in truly intersectional feminism by examining the role whiteness plays in conjunction with our womanhood. 

My art exposes us to each other's humanity, asking viewers to reflect on their own identities and privileges and how they are connected to subjects in my work. It uncovers the past so that we can heal the present and, together, imagine a more equitable and joyous future.