“Not Working Properly” is a mixed media project based on Bertha, the cartoon character from the 1970’s animation Fritz the Cat by White comic book artist Robert Crumb. The cartoon illustrates Big Bertha as a voluptuous figure with ink-black flesh, black bug eyes, and a crow-like beaked mouth. To combat this stereotypical imagery, I abstracted her form to challenge the idea of a Black woman’s body in the media. I compressed the papers into an undefined shape. I piled them on top of one another to represent exhausted bodies. I poured lye on the article, a product used in hair relaxers, to symbolize the struggle with my hair and the painful scars I gained from the product. Through these processes,  I showed the tireless effort to assimilate into white society. I painted the paper red, blue, white, and black—a reference to Fritz the Cat cartoon and the American Flag. I also signified these colors as codes of whiteness, blackness, sexuality, consumption, and labor.