Tucked into the scene is the cover of a wartime booklet titled If You Should Be Captured — a quiet tribute to the seventy-seven U.S. Army and Navy nurses imprisoned in the Philippines from 1942 to 1945. The piece also incorporates a fragment of family history: a photograph of the artist’s father’s World War II ration book — a symbol of shared sacrifice on the home front, when coupons for sugar, meat, butter, coffee, and gasoline curbed hoarding and ensured fairness while factories turned to the war effort.

Though this work includes no necklace segment, its composition reflects the same disciplined balance and historical layering that define the series — bridging private memory and collective history to reveal how women’s wartime contributions shaped visions of the future.  At the same time, it bridges women-in-WWII history, nursing imagery, and home-front narratives in a contemporary mixed media assemblage.

Materials: Fabric, ribbon, paper, art board, dollhouse miniatures, photograph, and public-domain WWII posters from the National Archives

Framing: Archival museum glass in a deep black custom frame by Chevy Chase Art Gallery, Washington, DC

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From War to Peace (Series)

A collection of miniature, historically grounded narratives tracing a cultural shift that still resonates today. During World War II, women stepped into expanded roles — cryptography, logistics, parachute rigging, radio repair, and more — only to be steered back toward narrowly defined domestic expectations as the war ended.

Drawing on period posters, archival photographs, and symbolic materials, each work juxtaposes wartime competence and leadership with postwar ideals of home and femininity. Intimate and research-driven, the series rewards careful viewing, restores these contributions to the historical record, and reasserts these women as clear role models for later generations.

Steeped in World War II women’s history, the series highlights the roles of both civilian and military women on the home front and beyond.