"This Little Piggy," original collage, 14" x 11"

The image in this piece is a pig in a stockyard squeezed into a tiny space with a lot of other pigs. That's how these animals are treated and raised. It's painful for me to see, but I used it because it's a powerful image about suffering. The look on the pig's face breaks my heart. This heart collage is a one-of-a-kind piece created by layering images and text cut from discarded magazines. I use the cut pieces to make abstract designs that document my observations and feelings about the world. Each collage begins with a central image that evokes a feeling I want to depict. I build the background around this image to fill out the theme of the piece. Some of the pieces are sanded down to reveal imagery underneath, and other pieces use lace or tulle to partially obscure part of the collage. The heart collages are a voice of compassion and understanding in a world that sometimes doesn't hear. They're offered as a way to comfort and soothe difficult emotions. Sustainability is an important