Terre Haute, Indiana

My work often deals with how geography, climate, and landscape impact our understanding of ourselves. While living in the post-industrial Midwest, I was surrounded by a very specific urban environment marked by the decay and aging splendor of a changing place. In the aftermath of the 2016 election, I watched as a country that equates industrial jobs with white labor started to romanticize and fetishize the Rust Belt, and suddenly abandoned factories and dilapidated homes became political. I am struggled with contributing to the increasingly overwrought narratives of life in the industrial Midwest, and watched as the meanings of symbols and images changed beneath me, posing new challenges to my work.