Pulling on Strings is motivated by Bentley’s desire to maintain control, and follows her development of learning to relinquish oneself to uncertainty. Growing up as a part of a military family, she constantly moved around and had little autonomy in future transitions. She is exhausted by the overwhelming feeling of constantly needing to be in control. To reduce cognitive dissonance, she takes action to lessen the magnitude of her incessant need for order. By concentrating on the act of making rather than the end-product lends itself in Bentley’s practice of disengaging from being in a position of control. The use of strings is labor intensive and requires Bentley to focus on the process in which she surrenders oversight into the results. The various printmaking techniques Bentley uses provides her with different degrees of authority over the resulting prints. With CMYK printing, the process is highly regulated and produces identical prints which allows her to have power over the final prints. In contrast, collagraph prints are profoundly variable which provides Bentley with less regulation over the resulting print. These mixed-media works embody Bentley's introspective reflection through embedded personal information and scale. This new approach to minimize authority over the results documents her progress made in renouncing control over the outcome, both artistically and personally.