Sit with History, Rise with Freedom
Take a Seat: Reflecting on 250 Years of America Through Found Art
I’m incredibly honored to share that I’ve been selected to participate in “Take a Seat,” an art call hosted by the Alexandria Library in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
When I first learned about this opportunity, I immediately loved the simplicity and depth of the prompt. A chair is something we all understand. It’s familiar. It’s functional. It’s where we sit to rest, to talk, to listen, to make decisions. It felt like the perfect object to explore a big, complicated question: where have we been, where are we now, and where do we go from here?
The chair I’m working with was provided by the Alexandria Library itself, which adds another layer of history and responsibility to the piece. This isn’t just a found object, it’s one that already belongs to a public space rooted in learning, community, and shared stories.
At first glance, the chair will be transformed into a bald eagle, one of the most recognizable symbols of the United States. I’m using recycled and found materials to build that form, materials that reflect modern American life and consumption. Plastic bags, prescription medicine bottles, foam tubing, metal pipes, bike tires, rubber toys, buttons, plastic rope, and a lot of black plastic all come together to create the eagle’s body.
But this piece isn’t just meant to be looked at; it’s still a chair. You can sit on it.
Once you move past the outer form of the recycled material eagle, the seat and back of the chair reveal another layer. They’re covered in newspaper clippings dating from the 1950s through present day papers, along with images and stereotypes pulled from different moments in American culture. Some are celebratory. Some are uncomfortable. All of them are intentional.
That contrast is important to me. The eagle represents ideals such as, freedom, strength, and independence. The newspapers represent reality, our history as it actually unfolded, both the good and the bad, and how those narratives continue to shape our present and future.
This piece isn’t about giving answers or making a political statement. It’s about asking people to slow down and sit with the complexity. To literally take a seat inside a symbol of America, surrounded by the stories we’ve told about ourselves for decades, and consider how those stories influence where we’re headed next.
As we approach 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, I don’t think the most meaningful thing we can do is simply celebrate. I think it’s more powerful to reflect, honestly, thoughtfully, and with a willingness to acknowledge growth, mistakes, and responsibility.
Art, for me, is a way to hold space for those conversations. This chair asks you to sit, look closer, and think about what we’re carrying forward, and what we might choose to transform.
