Well the Missus and I trundled down to the Fuller Craft Museum Saturday to catch Tom Kiefer: El Sueño Americano – The American Dream (through July 28) and say, it was . . . heartbreaking.

This powerful body of work features the confiscated belongings of migrants apprehended near a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol facility in southern Arizona. Images of personal effects deemed “non-essential” or “potentially lethal” by Border Patrol agents evoke the humanity and struggle of the refugees who are willing to risk their lives searching for a better life in America.

Among those non-essentials were water bottles . . .

and personal hygiene products . . .

and family heirlooms . . .

and, most damning, rosary beads.

The exhibit paints a brutal picture of the shameful, morally bankrupt state of our federal government as it blithely blocks those in need seeking safety, security, and – heaven forbid – success in the richest nation in the world.

It’s a shonda.

* * * * * * * 

Also on exhibit at Fuller Craft:

Uneasy Beauty: Discomfort in Contemporary Adornment (through April 21), which brings together “75 examples of contemporary jewelry and costume that demonstrate the immense power of adornment to impact us physically, emotionally, and intellectually.”

Representative samples:

Trigger warning: There are some extremely funky objects in this show.

Don’t miss it.

Ditto for Donna Dodson: Zodiac (through May 19), which “presents acclaimed woodworker Donna Dodson’s two sculptural series referencing animal characters associated with the Chinese and Western zodiacs.”

Representative samples:

It’s a hoot, and along with the other two exhibits, well worth a trundle.