These oil paintings and mixed media installations examine the roles we each play in maintaining systemic racism in America.

My installation, “Elephant in the Room,” was inspired by Jodi Picoult’s novel, Small, Great Things, about racism in America today. I made the elephant from torn pages of the book to illuminate the immensity of the problem that no one wants to talk about. The same elephant carries racism across the land in “Can We Talk?”

“Fragile, Handle With Care,” features 28 paper maché totems made from torn pages of Robin DiAngelo’s book, White Fragility, Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. Each figure stands for a day in February, the month when we celebrate all of Black history. With paper thin skin each one is shaped into its own defensive posture.