Motherworks
“These artworks depict mothers and babies absorbed in one another and their relationship, ignoring the harsh environments behind them which include a hostile desert, and the burnt remains of a home. Through materiality and imagery, I attempt to emphasize the presence of time passing and discuss entropy metaphorically as the inevitable progression of all things towards disorder and deterioration. The canvas frays, sewing is messy, and paint is often thin and gestural indicating the brevity of the moment, with the babies being extra loose and faded to indicate their even faster change of form. This treatment also facilitates the babies being read more as tokens or representations than specific entities.
Thinking about art history and the traditional hierarchy of subject matter in art, I am complicating the iconified mother and child paintings of Madonna and baby Jesus. I don’t allow the viewer to see the child’s face, but focus entirely on the mother, aiming to investigate their psychology, drive, and experiences. I attempt to communicate this through composition and rendering. The women are more solid and realistically painted, and placed in the composition to cause the viewer, like a child, to look to her for information.
Additionally, contemplating the decisions some women make in pursuit of this brief experience, from marrying unsatisfactory partners, spending thousands of dollars on fertility treatments, sacrificing careers and personal fulfillment, to disregard of political or financial environments, having a baby is often the top priority, and although they grow into children who provide a different joy, this phase that is so desirable for many women is fleeting. I placed my figures in harsh questionable environments to disrupt the initial “cute” factor and hint at these ideas.
Through my selection of imagery and way of crafting, I hope to facilitate different narratives and complex conversations, from the unweaving of societal constructs, the beauty and power of the mother child relationship, melancholy of nostalgia for now, to feminist dialogue on the way women are portrayed in art and life, and questioning the gender roles they perform. “