Artist's Statement

In 2016 I attended a five-day relief printmaking class at Ox-Bow, the School of the Art Institute’s summer school nestled in Saugatuck, Michigan.

The title of the class was “Word in Print.” Our class assignment was to think of a word or phrase and then explore its meaning using a combination of words and images. I selected the phrase “racial justice.”

As class began, for the first time I found my two selves - the lawyer and the artist - speaking with one voice. Twenty years earlier, while attending my first class at Ox-Bow, I thought I had to choose between my two selves. I even made a woodcut image to memorialize my inner conflict at the time.

Two years later, I’m still exploring what “racial justice” means to me, as well as how present-day society continues to stigmatize people who get entangled in the criminal justice system.

Previously, I’ve never given much thought to sharing my artwork with a larger audience. For me, the process of making art was all that I cared about. Now, not only do I want to share my work I hope that my work will give people a reason to start thinking about the issues I’ve explored: racial justice, lack of equal access to justice, and how the criminal justice system is used and abused.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with what I have to say but I’m hoping that my words and images prompt some to think of ways in which we can limit the inequities in our criminal justice system.