”Clocking In: Labor Defines”, group show at the MINE Factory // Pittsburgh, Pa, 2016.

Clocking in, clocking out, changing hats, switching gears. In navigating our place in society, we each create, embrace, and complicate the lines between our varied modes of working. Our attitudes about going to work, however, are dictated by our individual goals and experiences. How does the act of compartmentalizing attitudes, skills, and actions determine the way we relate to our notions of labor or work?

The artists in this exhibition each provide a unique lens through which they consider this question. With her daughter, Sawyer Shaw, Zena Ruiz uses the skills of manual labor to create prompts for play – the overlooked work of children. Natalia Gomez draws from her occupations in constructing and finishing, particularly in a gallery setting, to illustrate the invisible craft of labor. Lindsey Peck Scherloum works collectively with writers from the Words Without Walls program and with her audience to build a work-room out of meditations on work. Finally, Liz Rudnick invites the audience to consider the consequences of internal labor, that which must be performed to maintain or to change the habits that define us.

Clocking In: Labor Defines Title Wall

The Play House Series was a collaboration with my daughter and came about through observations of her play and combining that with the work that comes with maintaining a home’s space and relationships. These engaged the public in mark making onto the structures and moving of the carefully placed dolls. This series shows how no matter how carefully curated and placed one’s home is, the outside world (often unpredictable) has much influence on the home.

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1, 2, 3, Jump Over Watts Tower was a collaboration with poet, Bonita Lee Penn. This variable edition series of prints was commissioned by the Three Rivers Arts Festival for the “Anthropology of Motherhood 2018” exhibition organized by Fran Flaherty. This was a special opportunity that embraced the talents of both Ms. Bonita and myself where we shared our skills with each other – Ms. Bonita shared the art of poetry through a one on one poetry workshop and I shared the art of printmaking through a one on one printmaking workshop.