A lot of the people I work with, and most of the people who would bother to go to an art show, tend to be people who, when they find out that I’m a) a military veteran and b) that I grew up with a mom who was a police officer, have strange and interesting reactions. Almost like, “Omg you’re ONE of them?” It sucks that the ones the “good people” hate are people like my family. Maybe even like me? This little show was done in ye olde 2013, and things weren’t nearly as polarized then. But there were signs. Anyway, this show really isn’t that deep. But all those thoughts were swirling in my head when I made these pieces. The ambiguity of these mostly-jokey paintings was what I found most interesting. And that dress! I was doing this show solo, and since 3rdspace had so much SPACE, I wanted a big showpiece for some scale. I borrowed a mannequin and had a dress made just for this show, based on the sort of 6-hoop dresses high school girls wear to the Homecoming in my home town of Bethalto, IL, and had it made out of the now-outdated “Woodland pattern” camo I wore on my Air Force uniform.