Portfolio artist specializing in visual narratives.
It Started with a Tea Party
An Ode to Women's Suffrage
February - April 2026
Featured in "Steeped" the 34th Annual Juried Exhibition at the Strathmore Mansion
Tea is a long-held symbol of revolution and change in this country. At the same time, the act of throwing a tea party evokes a distinctly feminine and often whimsical picture -- sophisticated, elegant women gathered around a meticulously arranged table with pre-prepped desserts and fresh-cut flowers -- leisurely schmoozing, wearing expensive dresses, and sipping warm, spiced drinks out of the finest china.
While all of that may be true, that doesn't mean tea parties are frivolous, unimportant, or something reserved only for children at playtime. Tea parties were where the seeds of suffrage could germinate before blooming into women's right to vote.
Among many of the brave fore-mothers we owe our thanks to, there are three specific women, Lucy Burns, Alice Paul, and Dora Lewis, who stood up to a predominantly male (Wilson) administration and ended up in jail for it. We are here today because of them, and it all started with a tea party.
In an effort to reflect how Lucy, Alice, and Dora were individual members of a larger group with a specific purpose, each set differs slightly from the others while maintaining common elements interspersed among them. The chosen materials (each cup, plate, and teapot) were sourced locally from second-hand stores, breathing "new" life into items that had been let go or discarded. The details and portraits affixed to the objects are hand-drawn illustrations carefully applied with waterslide decals.
The Women at Our Table
Mason Exhibitions and
A Seat At The Table
In Conversation with “How We See What They Saw” a Fenwick Gallery Exhibition
"We partnered with GMU’s Fenwick Gallery, highlighting 11 female photographers from their exhibition How We See What They Saw (Sept 15-Nov 21, 2025), a
customized reading room aimed to create a space for audiences to encounter, appreciate, and revalue the indispensable role of women in shaping the past,
present, and future of the photobook.
The experience involved a slowed-down ceremonial setting of the table and an extended invitation welcoming people passing by to sit with us and learn about
the women represented on the plates in front of them. We offered our guests tea, spoke briefly about the project, our mission, and some of the highlighted women. We also asked guests questions about themselves and the women in their lives. Some shared memories and spoke to us about their significance. What resulted was a fulfilling and inspiring conversation.
Our Lived Experience
During our first installation of “A Seat At The Table,” we held the event for two hours in Fenwick Gallery, located in Fenwick Library on the George Mason University campus. The event was held in collaboration with "How We See What They Saw: A Reading Room of Photobooks by Women,” which explored the creative achievements of women and nonbinary photographers. The exhibit invited the audience to engage with photobooks and understand their works. We chose to partner with this exhibit because of its mission of highlighting the works of women and their contributions to the field of photography aligned closely with our own vision. “A Seat At The Table” invited participants to rethink the phrase "women belong in the kitchen" by turning it into a celebration of strength, tradition, and legacy. With an interactive display of custom-designed ceramics and recipe books, we pay tribute to the women who have quietly shaped history. We received an audience of twelve people who represented a range of ages and disciplines. Some of the audience were artists, historians, and curators, while others came to the table due to an interest in the experience.
We received an extremely positive response to the entirety of our exhibit. Once people took a seat at the table, we invited them to enjoy tea and learn about the women on the chinaware in front of them. In front of each audience member, there was a full set of chinaware with a dinner plate, saucer plate, and then a tea cup, where each one had a unique portrait of a woman alongside her name. When we spoke to the audience members, they all liked the idea and symbolism within the project. Many of them inquired about how we were hoping to expand the project and continue to develop it, offering their own inputs and opportunities that we could contribute to. In the act of the exhibit, we engaged in authentic conversation about the women, their history, and whether there were women in their own lives who left a lasting impact on them. Our conversations morphed from historical to philosophical to an artistic journey where the focus was to understand more about the women. One of the intentional acts we did was to work to curate an archive of women, and we received a lot of active participation. The conversation and the entirety of the exhibit were focused on authentic, non-rushed acts of listening and hearing one another.