Mychaelyn Michalec’s work uses textiles to address themes of gendered labor and stereotypes, feminism, sexuality, and art history. She creates large-scale rugs using both hand tools and a commercial tufting gun which are often embellished with embroidery, hand knitting, and found, vintage sewing notions. Textiles are historically a language of creation and storytelling assigned to women, and Michalec uses these processes as part of a historical continuum and critique of our cultural heritage. While Michalec recognizes that her generation was the first to be told by second-wave feminism that we could, “be anything we wanted to be,'' the reality is far from that for many Gen X women. Her work examines the female gender in society and art history using sentimentality and materiality to define and redefine these intents.