Presidents
2017

The Men (After “Ooh I scared, I scared”, found object (2004) and chine collé, 2016)

42 Lithographs and accompanying digital prints

2017

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(May 2017) Effortless and innocent childhood drawings, playthings and memorabilia worm their way into my contemporary adult perspective. Personal artifacts and memories are my primary source and provoke me to either bring myself into their context or bring them into my context or neither or both. In this particular work I used an object I acquired during my time living in Paris, a placemat from a café showing a charted list of every United States president until 2004. My dad and I took this find home and conducted quick research on the presidents concluding whether their terms made them “good” or “bad” thus representing my very first interest in politics. Thirteen years later I find myself disagreeing with my original brandings, but my interest has only grown stronger. As a child my interests sorted these past leaders as a cast of characters in a story, separating the good guys from the bad guys. The original artifact instilled intimacy and wonder in my 9-year-old self, but growing up has opened my mind to the harsh realities of the politics of my country. Mimicking my past opinions while shifting scale and media prompts a critical view, launching this once sentimental artifact into a confrontational subject. My fascination with this source has bred detachment as seen in my other work, but also a unique rejection. My 9-year-old views are clearly written, but my 22-year-old knowledge condemns their relevancy. The lines between personal history and public history become blurred, as I take on the task of removing sentimentality and replacing it with knowledge and facts. In giving myself the power to alter my own memories I am able to reconcile with my significant life events and understand their connection to my contemporary context. 

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Reflection, Five Years Later (2022)

This work feels very frivolous to me now after the intensity and unraveling of the last few years. There are many things I want to say to explain the naive mindset behind this work, but the very nature of the project is about reflecting on the context of the time and place when ideas and thoughts are born. My opinions on the presidents were influenced by my father as a child and some differ greatly from my opinions as a 22-year-old, but I chose to show them in my 9-year-old context to confront those opinions more readily, rather than erase them. I almost wanted to write this reflection and do just that, erase my 2017 self and knowledge. So instead I acknowledge this work as what it is, moments in time, that shape my and this country's history but do not reflect the current opinions I and so many others hold.