PHYLLIS EVANS:

I work in a variety of media, combining digital imaging, encaustic painting, drawing, and photography. Much of my work addresses social concerns, especially inequalities in gender, wealth, and power. I live, work, and teach in a region known as the Rio Grande Valley in the southern part of Texas along the Mexican border. Currently, communities along the entire length of the Texas/Mexico border are caught up in an ugly political situation in which the Department of Homeland Security, desperate to appear to the current administration's shrinking base as though they are doing something about national security and illegal immigration, is forcefully taking land from property owners, businesses, and public institutions in order to build a "security wall" that will cut off river access for farmers, business people, land owners, and wildlife. It will destroy the unique beauty of the landscape, threaten hundreds of endangered species, ruin lives and businesses, and send an ominous, hateful message to our southern neighbors. This project will cost U.S. tax-payers billions of dollars, and will do little to prevent people from entering the country illegally. Please visit the No Border Wall website http://www.notexasborderwall.com/ for more information on this travesty to our community and our nation. When I'm not teaching, working, or travelling, I enjoy a quiet homelife with my husband, four cats, and two dogs.