The Weight of Your Plate explores the environmental and physical impacts of the American Food System through the art of Printmaking. The ability to make multiple originals from a singular matrix in this medium has allowed me to use past photographs, and give them a new meaning within my research.  

            Using a series of photographs taken during my Spring semester in 2016, I give a new context to the imagery through the adaptation of the figures within the medium of printmaking. The use of texture and line is a critical visual component of the prints. Within my prints the central  themes are of the body and barriers. What keeps us contained, physically, politically, and environmentally? In what ways are our human bodies connected to those of the livestock we consume, and how are women specifically impacted by the agricultural norms of our society? Looking critically at the experience of dairy cows, and the connection of their bodies to the female form, how do gender dynamics penetrate the boundary of human versus bovine?

            In my early printmaking career I focused on the influence of media and politics on the way women interact with and perceive their own bodies. Continuing my cultural critique of the influence of consumerism in a profit-economy I see a strong connection between the socio-political charge in my early works and my current project. I am a strong believer that asking questions is a critical part of being an informed consumer. I aim to convey the importance of pushing beyond what is given to us as truth, and encourages the viewer to think more critically about the impact of their own actions, and the power of investigation.