American Women: Birds of imMigration

Using vintage photographs and cabinet cards from the early 1900's, in combination with my own photographs, I wanted to tell stories about the courage of these women, leaving their countries of origin to travel to America to start a new life. I began with images of my own grandmother, who travelled alone in steerage after leaving Petrikov in Belarus at the age of 15, and made her way to Providence, Rhode Island to begin anew. These 3 dimensional mixed media pieces (photographic collage and paint on wood panels), highlight the journey of immigrant women and ask us, at this time when immigration is seen as a national and global threat, to remember and reflect on the fact that most of us are relatively recent descendants of immigrants or immigrants ourselves.