Concerned but Powerless

Series of 22, mixed media, charcoal and color pencil on illustration board, 2017 - 2023

I created this semi-satirical series as a way of processing my anxieties when I was in the final stretch of my two-decades long naturalization process and was also expecting to become a parent. Covering topics such as the election, parenthood, naturalization, and otherness, the sardonic commentary grew progressively desperate as anti-ethnic sentiments and tensions intensified after the unprecedented 2016 election. Accompanying the writings are collages with snippets of mid-20th century depictions of idyllic American families, Urdu words, and hand-drawn symbols that together tell a different story of the American dream.