I’ve always been interested in the ways that personal politics intersects with the culture around us. I was lucky to be part of a young art community that enjoyed affordable rents in NYC long before gentrification put most of NYC off limits to young creatives. I was able to live on a waitress salary and make art that spoke to me or the times in which we lived. The piece called What is Power was born out of my investigations into the roles we unconsciously take on growing up in a nuclear family in a patriarchal culture. Landlords operate from positions of power and renters must struggle to maintain their dignity in their own substandard housing. Banks Red-Lining the Community symbolizes how those with financial power discriminate against the poor and people of color, triggering further power struggles.