The American Myth is a concept often held synonymous with The American Dream, and it’s similarly hard to define.

When I consider the relevance of this historical concept in our technological age, I find it easier to evaluate it as a double entendre, a word with dual meanings. The myth part of the American Myth is at once a widely held false belief and simultaneously a story that speaks to the values of a culture. In a modern age, it can be difficult to pursue [American] dreams with the knowledge of the systems of violence that underpin them - the proverbial elephant in the room, ever present on our phones or outside our doors. Thus, I feel like a dissonance resides in many younger generations who look to humor, fantasy and romanticism as means of expressing discontent with modern systems. Under these conditions, I ask you, what does a twenty-first century American Dream look like and what function does a myth serve, both as a story and a false belief?

This series of works serves as my investigation into those questions, as well as a search for personal agency in a country that seems to be rapidly sinking into fascism. The landscape I’ve created is a reflection of my own hopes and dreams - small in scale, fanciful and vulnerable, yet genuine and real in comparison to the grand set-dressing of a nation on the brink. To peek behind the curtain is to confront the falsity of a myth but once you see the picture as a whole you can truly understand the story of it.