Factory Girls is an ongoing series of collage work that explores intergenerational throughlines of origin, manual labor and kin. Born into a blue collar Detroit family, skilled labor and industrial factories were the sole job opportunity that offered security, identity and aspiration for the next generation. The Midwest is the people, community and place that I come from. Family taught me the value of manual labor, the grandfathers and uncles who made colorful, shiny cars, that afforded escapism, style and joy. The automobile is symbolic of their hands' creations. My collage arrangements are a throughline of intergenerational re-interpretation; precisely cut, arranged and pasted in my own self-made factory, as symbolic tribute to their diligence and unacknowledged artistry.