Stand Up Fight Back

I tried to ground down

As part of an all-female artist/teacher collective, we often reflect on the care economy. Elementary education is and has always been a female dominated profession. Teachers are expected to give hours of free labor and time to the schools and communities they work with. Often this comes at the expense of their own families and selves. We find ourselves aware of this exploitation but unable to break out of these cycles because we care deeply for the kids we work with. Teachers are tired, they often work in unreasonable circumstances, and this seems to have become the accepted norm in public education.

“I tried to ground down” is a series of performances using 50 bags of flour and a small broom. Each performance uses audio taken from the collective group chat.

Performance and audio 2018

Breadcrumb Poems

How do I make art that exists outside of capitalism? How can I bring poetry into every day forgotten spaces? How can I share ideas of deep listening and close observation with my community?

“Breadcrumb Poems” are chunks of concrete with text from poems, books, and songs painted on them. The breadcrumbs are placed strategically around the city in various locations where someone might encounter them on foot.

2019, ongoing

Spaces for Possibility

In contemporary society, it is rare to find a space for people to gather that is not based in consumerism. For teachers, and most working people, it is rare to find a space or time to gather at all.

Spaces For Possibility is an artist/teacher collective with a storefront space for art teachers to meet, make, share meals, drink tea, relax, do something and/or do nothing. We often read the same books and discuss pressing issues in our communities. We sometimes collaborate to create art rooted in these ideas and sometimes we just take naps.

Dibs Sale

“DIBS” is a Chicago winter tradition. When someone shovels their car out after a big snow, they will often reserve their shoveled spot as their own space. To claim this space, they will use anything ranging from ironing boards to milk crates to lawn chairs to complete nativity scenes. Dibs is a controversial tradition in Chicago as it effectively claims a public space as private property, but these mini installations also create somewhat of a public gallery space.

For “Dibs sale,” I constructed several sculptures out of discarded and found materials and painted them gold. After big snow storms, I would set up my merchandise in public spaces and try to sell the items to whomever passed by.

Winter 2019

Couples

“Couples” was my graduation show for art school. All the work I created for the show was traced on the wall, then filled in with a gray tone. The shapes on the wall were numbered and a binder sat on a table describing each piece in great detail.

2008

A seat for to sit and do nothing

While cooking for an artist residency in Wisconsin I stayed in a house about a mile from the kitchen. Because this was during my summer break away from teaching, I was hoping for time to relax and make art, but it was a lot busier than I expected. I began to enjoy the peace and rhythm of my walk back and forth from the kitchen. While teaching, I have become intentional about building in time to do nothing, so I did the same for the residency. I made this stool to sit on during my walk. Sometimes I would do nothing, sometimes I would play guitar for passing by cars.

2019