The Deconstructed American series uses the word ‘American’ as a visual collage element. Repeatedly print, cut, and recombined, the letters form multifaceted patterns as fragments are arranged to align or contrast. In this way, numerous perspectives on our country’s national identity are imagined, during a time when debates over who belongs dominate the news. Hand lettering in encaustic monotype is uniquely suited to this graphic work as it conveys the political potency of graffiti as well as the ephemeral character of a charcoal drawing and a grainy black and white photograph. In some compositions, fractured ‘stars and stripes’ are foregrounded, and in others, abstracted pieces evoke a snippet of unexposed film, a stroke of chalk on a blackboard, or an inky night sky — all reminders of unbound possibility.