"State of the Union" is a lithograph print created from a collage, overwhelming in its appearance in every aspect -- reflective of the current social and political climate of the United States. This work touches on war, women's rights, climate change, greed, technology, the ever changing landscape of America: pressing topics that we are constantly overwhelmed by, an overflow of information fed to us by the media. The offset colors give the words and imagery an almost sickly tone, conveying the nauseating effect these issues give rise to. The political nature of the imagery and words within this work, as well as the appearance, is reminiscent of collage created during the Dada movement. Dada artists created work critiquing the system and rationality itself within the system. In today's social and political climate, this feels all too relevant. "State of the Union" quite literally places all these issues at the forefront, compacting them into one image, questioning the rationality of it all and calling for an upheaval of the system.

We are fed a lie by consumer capitalism that age must be defied, avoided at all costs. The inevitable is the ultimate price to be paid. Death is a tragedy we fear, rather than a facet of life. This notion is engrained into our society and our very beings.

I had always thought that I had a particular indifference towards death, its occurrence being a fact of life with no associated feeling. Aging and dying was just something we do, and it is -- something we “just do”. I never seemed to be able to grasp the gravity of the matter. I now am starting to see this as an avoidance and general detachment. When you lose someone when you’re young you don’t know what it means. And in a sense it means nothing, in the scheme of things a single life diminished is generally inconsequential -- a crumb among billions and billions of lives to ever have existed. But being human means that our seemingly unimportant lives intertwine and we create connections with others. When those connections are lost and all ties are cut, for what is our forever, it is consequential in every sense possible.

The wrinkles that gather around our eyes and the spots that form on our skin and the malleability that becomes of our flesh are daily reminders that we are not invincible, we are finite. And this can be beautiful and terrifying all at the same time.

I am constantly changing, shifting, never the same person I was even a moment before. I am young but I am aging, I am naive but I am growing, I lack knowledge but I am learning. Each day is different from the next and each day I am different from the last. Sometimes this is hard to remember, to separate myself from the growing pains. In the moments I feel I’ve regressed, I must remember the growth that lead me to this point here. We can not constantly be blooming, and there must be decay for new life to spring again. This is an affirmation to myself that each day is an opportunity to grow and change and move on from the last, and with decay comes life.