The United States current political position in the Middle East coupled with my own personal position as the girlfriend of a United States Naval Officer has inspired my current artwork. Envelopes for me, are a delicate and crucial mode of communication. They are a romantic, personal, and precious way of communicating with my beloved sailor. For most military girlfriends and wives, it is the letters that they receive from their significant other that maintain their relationship. In addition to these envelopes being special objects of correspondence, these envelopes serve another purpose. They are also a sort of reaching out to those far away in the midst of our political situation, specifically my equivalent, the Middle Eastern woman on the other side of our conflict waiting for her soldier’s letters. Through the junxtaposition of the envelopes with the Mehndi my sculptural paintings imply a larger discussion of American Femininity and Middle Eastern femininity as it applies to the old fashioned and highly personalized military lifestyle.