empty

a socially engaged art project that tells a small piece of

a large story about children who face food insecurity

During the 2022-2023 school year in my home town of Riverside, California, 16,553 students in K-5 or K-6 (depending on school district) qualified for free lunch.* 

This phase of the work presents the extent of food insecurity for children from Kindergarten through sixth grade (K-6)* in Riverside’s Alvord Unified School District. 

In a land of incredible resources this lack of basic needs for our most vulnerable community members, for whatever reason, is more than a heartbreak, it is a scandal.

Moved by this awareness, I wondered how my art practice might create value and make a difference. How could it raise awareness and prompt action for community nourishing and flourishing? 

This has been a collaborative work from the beginning. In 2023, over 40 volunteers made the ceramic spoons in workshops held in community centers, back yards, and studios. The installation designer/builder duo Grace Saunders and Timothy LeBlanc worked to realize the frame for the falling spoons. 

*DataQuest, California Department of Education

empty first appeared for one day at First United Methodist Church in Riverside in December 2023. 

  • Zapara School of Business, La Sierra University, Riverside, CA October 2024–March 2025

  • Woodcrest Community Library, Riverside, CA August 2025-December 2025.

Inspired by Barbara Kingsolver’s 2023 Pulitzer Prize winning novel Demon Copperhead, I felt compelled to use the tools I have as an artist to bring attention to child food insecurity in my own town. The project quickly evolved into a community-based endeavor as I held free ceramic spoon-making workshops. I met so many kind people with hearts for hungry children.

I wrote about the conceptualizing and the making of the work in several blog posts beginning HERE.

The installation has been hosted in different spaces and as of November 1, 2025—the day SNAP benefits are slated to end, it has yet to find a permanent home. This heartbreak of hunger persists.