Addressing Social Issues Through Art

In her work, Dominique Pickett ’20 (Fine Arts Studio; now Studio Arts) explores "navigating social issues of institutional racism in our society," she said. "These experiences leave us with unresolved emotional traumas. I use mice and mousetraps as subject matters to overlap the conflicts of ideas. Mice represent several things in my work … unwavering inner strength to overcome the obstacles. The mousetraps are the metaphor of inequality in our healthcare services, educational, social and political systems in America. I used image references from my personal history, black culture and popular culture where I can symbolically transform the meaning of images through reproducing and preserving with screen-print. With the use of printmaking techniques and tension, I explore the themes and subject matter like the comfort of safety versus a prison.”