In Alma Blues, a 2019 exhibition, Clay Reuter combines the repetition of school work with surreal dream logic to create a sense of anxiety and disorientation. Drawing, photography, and video gameplay mix to lead viewers through a school stress-dream, the type that often recurs even after one’s time in school. The work in Alma Blues strives to develop literacy (both traditional and emotional) in order to uncover the underlying fears at the root of these nightmares.

Alphabet for Boys, (pictured above) explores emotional literacy and the common practice of discouraging boys from showing, discussing, or accepting emotions. Installed like the letters in an elementary school class room, each letter corresponds to an emotion perceived to be negative.