The 'unsUStainable' Collection

In this body of work, I want to highlight the complicated, asymmetrical relationships between humans and animals ever after the end of WWII. As a storyteller and artist growing up without knowledge of frozen dinners or canned meats, I find myself horrified as much as oddly fascinated with the industrialization of food. Thus, this body of work is my attempt to pinpoint when practicality and inhumanity replaced our connection with nature and with what we put into our bodies. All of the pieces in this collection feature elements of balance, selfishness, and a whimsical characteristic reminiscent of fables of those post-war days. Tiny, dark-haired girls — dressed in 40's and 50's attires — are the protagonists in these scenes, their faces purposefully vague, yet with bodies gesturing ill-intention towards creatures larger than themselves. As a mother whose every single choice fuels and perpetuates the realities of food mass production, my work also serves as an invitation to my fellow sisters to take responsibility for the cruelty and sickliness derived from this system. In these epic tales of survival, rat ropes, girly ribbons, or the tension of a simple sailor's push have been used to illustrate the tense balance — or rather imbalance. The carefully selected mixed-media in these pieces also emphasizes the period and the "industrialization" factor. In a way, my work renders the condition of humanity as a thing of storybooks and transforms something so inherently sad into a humorous work that can serve as a lens for introspection.