american exception/al/ism (ongoing collection, 2025-present)

“You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”
— Matthew 23:27b

Whitewashed Tomb (a beacon of freedom for the nations!) juxtaposes the United States’ self-proclaimed identity in the world with the horrors it has inflicted both within the US and across the globe.

What atrocities do we bury beneath our whitewashed exterior?

My american exception/al/ism series is influenced by my background in peacebuilding studies, antiwar activism, international childhood, various social movements across the United States especially in the past decade, and writers around the world by whom I’m endlessly educated and inspired. I particularly love Arundhati Roy’s political essays with their exquisite prose, razor-sharp analysis and scathing sarcasm- a perfect combo.

Whitewashed Tomb (a beacon of freedom for the nations!)
2025
Hand-sewn mixed textiles

See this piece exhibited in “Interpretations of an American Dream” at The Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, OH from October 3 - December 7, 2025.

Next
Next

"collective imagination"