Independent works
Independent Works brings together paintings created outside A.LaB’s larger series, each beginning with a specific idea, question, emotion, commission, or moment of curiosity. The subjects vary widely, from humor and social commentary to identity, mental health, resilience, and the absurdities of everyday life, but they share the same instinct to make something visually compelling before revealing what sits beneath the surface. Some began as personal reflections or reactions to current events, while others were commissioned pieces shaped around another person’s story, memory, or vision. Together, these works reflect the range of A.LaB’s practice and the freedom to follow an idea wherever it leads
Rosie Remixed
18" × 24" | Acrylic on Stretched Canvas
"Rosie Remixed" reimagines the familiar Rosie the Riveter image through a contemporary lens, replacing the iconic figure with an older Black woman and transforming "We Can Do It!" into a call to do it again. The piece was inspired in part by a conversation with A.LaB’s mother about the hardships older generations endured and the ways they found the strength to keep going, offering a reminder that today’s struggles can be survived too. Bright color and familiar Pop Art imagery make the message immediately recognizable, while the altered figure and text invite viewers to reconsider who is represented by cultural symbols of strength, labor, and perseverance.
Chiquita Rx
12" × 16" | Acrylic on Stretched Canvas
"Chiquita Rx" pairs a radiant smile and playful, fruit-inspired silhouette with an unexpected headdress made entirely of brightly colored pills and capsules. Beneath the cheerful surface, the piece explores the disconnect between how someone appears to the outside world and the much more complicated reality they may be carrying internally. Look closely and the smile does not quite reach her eyes, introducing a subtle tension beneath the bright colors and polished expression. The humor and visual excess draw the viewer in first, while the contradiction underneath asks how often we mistake looking happy for actually being okay.
Control
9" × 12" | Acrylic on Canvas Board
"Control" began as a private joke and evolved into a playful exploration of power, sexuality, and female agency. A woman’s bright yellow heel pins down a voodoo-like figure, transforming an absurd image into a visual metaphor for taking the upper hand. The vivid color and humor keep the scene playful, while the pose introduces a more provocative question about who holds power, who gives it up, and what it looks like when a woman unapologetically claims it.
Work in progress
18" × 24" | Acrylic on Stretched Canvas
"Work in Progress" depicts two Air Force service members physically repairing the American flag, turning a familiar patriotic symbol into something unfinished and requiring collective effort. Rather than presenting the country as a completed ideal, the piece reflects on patriotism as an ongoing responsibility, something maintained by people willing to recognize what is broken and help rebuild it. Set inside Hangar 34, the painting also centers the individuals whose service is often invoked as a symbol of the nation, asking what it means to care for a country while acknowledging that it can still be improved.
Exhale
16" × 24" | Acrylic and Crayon on Stretched Canvas
"Exhale" began as a deeply personal collaboration between A.LaB and her mother, who has dementia and is no longer able to paint as she once did. Created as a gift for A.LaB’s sister, the piece gave them an opportunity to make art together again, with her mother coloring portions of the woman’s hair and helping select the palette that shaped the finished painting. The woman’s upward gaze and sweeping plume of color give the work a feeling of release, while the story behind it turns the piece into something equally about memory, connection, and finding new ways to create together when old ones are no longer possible.
Pinky up
24" × 36" | Acrylic on Canvas
"Pinky Up" places a carefree toast against the backdrop of catastrophe, using humor and visual contradiction to explore the strange ways people continue living ordinary lives while the world around them feels increasingly unstable. The smiling couple appears almost untouched by the mushroom cloud behind them, creating tension between celebration, denial, resilience, and the human instinct to keep moving forward. The piece does not prescribe a single interpretation, instead inviting the viewer to decide whether the moment feels absurd, hopeful, unsettling, or all three at once.