In this series, titled “Houses of Detroit,” I’m confronting the viewer with not only a liminal space, but a space that tells a story of an impoverished area less than an hour from Ann Arbor. The state of these houses is unfathomable to most and my goal is to explicitly expose the conditions in hopes to raise awareness about our neighbors here in the United States. Neighbors, that are living in houses with roofs caved in and broken windows, or forced to vacate due to unlivable conditions, often resulting in homelessness. To bring these issues to the forefront, I zoom in on the boarded up doors, broken windows, and overgrown lawns to share a glimpse of what some of these neighborhoods look like. 

With each piece in my Houses of Detroit Series, I hope to tell a different story. In some pieces, I utilize my brushwork to express the turbulent situations individuals in this area are faced with; often creating a foggy lens that imitates the emotional state of the people going through the process of losing their home or the very memory of their home. While in others, I delve into greater detail to emphasize the deterioration. Shattered windows, accumulated rust, and caved in roofs serve only as symbols for the viewer that reflect the brokenness in this community.