what fascinates the masses (2024) ¹
acrylic on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

we’re planting seeds(2024)
acrylic on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

queueing up for the count(2024)
acrylic on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

she sees spirits (2024)
acrylic on canvas

this guy, eh? (2024)
acrylic on canvas

no time to horse around (2024)
acrylic on canvas

This painting was part of a collaborative show with AnySquared Gallery.
It was made with a prompt from a short story by Jasmine Rodriguez.
You can listen to her read the story live here.

t

They use an assurance of community and reconnecting with one’s faith and heritage to conceal their true nature. I was promised a space to be free of anti-semitism and was told that Israel was a land made for me as a Jewish person. This was a lie.

In college, I joined my campus affiliate of Hillel International, an organization focused on building community for Jewish students on campus. I attended seder dinners and movie nights, volunteered, and worked with other student clubs on campus issues. However, within this friendly-seeming cohort of people lay something more sinister.

After a few months in the group, I was introduced to a program called “Birthright”. This program is advertised as a free trip to Israel so that Jewish students can reconnect with their homeland. In nearly every event I attended, there was propaganda about this trip and the idea that Israel is the only place where the Jewish people are safe. What was not mentioned is that another group of people lay claim to this land, and rather than educating others against the horrors of totalitarianism, such as with the Holocaust, the Hillel organization perpetuates the very same lies.

I never accepted the trip, and sadly found that similar Jewish groups which focus on young professionals spread the same rhetoric. I feel a loss of community while reckoning that I cannot accept the dishonesty I faced while simply trying to connect with others like me.

dependency of dispossession (2024)
acrylic on canvas
^{photo by Amanda Thomas}

the idle infatuation of idiosyncrasy (2024)
acrylic on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

totality of juggernauts (2024)
acrylic on canvas board
^{photo by Amanda Thomas}

this cereal is stale (2023)
acrylic on wood panel
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

zero gravity (2023)
acrylic on canvas board

obstreperous oligarchy (2023)
acrylic on paper

pragmatic poison (2023)
acrylic on canvas

in disdain, collywobbles (2023)
acrylic and collage on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

mother, may i? (2023)
acrylic and collage on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

feinting for fun(ds) (2023)
acrylic on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

emoticon elsewhither(2023)
acrylic on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

compliance defiance(2023)
acrylic on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

death by any other name (2023)
acrylic on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

decision fatigue (2023)
acrylic on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

call in the calvary (2023)
acrylic on canvas panel
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

eviscerate the ego (2023)
acrylic on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

cavorting into chroma (2023)
acrylic on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

cirque du absurdité (2023)
acrylic and beads on canvas
^{photo by Wenc Photo}

eating my feelings (2023)
acrylic on canvas

if a tree falls (2022)
acrylic on canvas panel

1. this work can be hung 2 different ways ↩︎