My family name is Ruder. Originally my family name was Rutz. This name was altered to sound “more American” when my family immigrated from Poland during the Holocaust (though how Ruder sounds more American than Rutz is beyond me). This story is one of a few that remain through my family line. I love asking about stories of my past, and I have always been known as the archivist of my family. I would steal one photograph at a time from my grandparents until I had a nice curated collection in protected binders. I would place them in stories that felt fitting, exploring the themes of my ancestors and imagining what they were like, how they thought of the world. The emotions related to my past and my family history reverberate through my work as a longing feeling of unsettlement, like searching for answers to questions I can't ask. I am working create a body of work that can pass down stories and ponderings to my future family lineage. Recently, my work has surrounded the Anthropocene, a defined period of human influence in the span of Earth's lifetime. I believe that the environment that shapes a person can also reflect the inner emotions of that person through systems. When a city is chaotic, when streets are poorly designed, the system is not functional. When a person has a lot happening within themselves, when they have created their life in a manner that is not indicative of growth, they mimic the same dsysfucntion and chaos of the street. Landscape architecture unintentionally exposed me to the world of systems; sewage systems, rain cycles, commuting routes, noise pollution, etc. I began to see that some of the previously unexplainable parts of human suffering have some answers, as well as similarities to the suffering itself. I saw how the stories of the past gave meaning to the present. For example, trees communicate to each other through root systems and fungi signals. What happens when this network is broken by logging or a highway? Similarly, in many areas throughout the United States, communities are broken into pieces through highway implementation, something known as Red-Lining. I look at how these types of influence can reflect the suffering around them, and how the Anthropocene is a new age of environment. Moving forward, I aim to explore my experience as a Jewish woman in the south of the United Stateswhile continuing the theme of the Anthropocene and the lack of tradition in my life. I am from the Bible-belt, a part of the US that is heavily influenced by the Christian faith. The area where I'm from, the Panhandle of Florida, is a predominantly conservative and right-wing part of the US. I was one of 3 Jews in my school from the time I was 7 to graduation. I often tell others that my experience as a Jewish person is more defined by the bigotry I have faced in my youth rather than the traditions and knowledge of the faith. I am not personally religious, but the markers of the religion were often shown to me through others who mocked the faith. I want to reflect upon the feeling of anxiety that is a constant in my previous work while expanding the underlying themes to that of my life in the Panhandle. It is important to me to understand larger systems of influence within the every-day stories that I experienced and give such information to my family lineage and the public.