If you're looking for something to be brave about, consider fine arts.
-Robert Frost
Artist Statement
This series is close to my heart. I am making this body of work to express the overflowing emotion I had surrounding the birth of my first child. Within the last two years I went from a college student, to being married with a one year old. Being a parent is a beautiful experience that comes with a mixture of emotions. This year has been filled with highs and lows, as well as very confusing moments. These are the emotions I would like to portray to my viewers.
Using just a brush dipped in paint on top of mixed media, I would like to show the world I empathize with my fellow parents. My work explores how a parent’s world can be turned upside down with the birth of a child. Painting on stretched canvas and mounted wooden panels, I incorporate a variety of textured materials into my paintings to resemble what the physical aspects of motherhood can feel like. These mixed media paintings represent the female body through its pregnancy, as well as the emotional attachment post-partum.
I use the cracking of tile grout to represent the physical breakdown I felt while entering this new chapter of my life. I try to invoke different emotions I felt by using common colors our society relates to certain emotions. For instance, in a painting of a pregnant woman with painful looking, cracked skin, I used red to represent warmth and happiness a mother feels through the pain she is experiencing. Another example is my use of blue to express the sadness that accompanies postpartum depression, while her areolas, nipples, and stretchmarks still retain a red tone for life.
This series is close to my heart. I am making this body of work to express the overflowing emotion I had surrounding the birth of my first child. Within the last two years I went from a college student, to being married with a one year old. Being a parent is a beautiful experience that comes with a mixture of emotions. This year has been filled with highs and lows, as well as very confusing moments. These are the emotions I would like to portray to my viewers.
Using just a brush dipped in paint on top of mixed media, I would like to show the world I empathize with my fellow parents. My work explores how a parent’s world can be turned upside down with the birth of a child. Painting on stretched canvas and mounted wooden panels, I incorporate a variety of textured materials into my paintings to resemble what the physical aspects of motherhood can feel like. These mixed media paintings represent the female body through its pregnancy, as well as the emotional attachment post-partum.
I use the cracking of tile grout to represent the physical breakdown I felt while entering this new chapter of my life. I try to invoke different emotions I felt by using common colors our society relates to certain emotions. For instance, in a painting of a pregnant woman with painful looking, cracked skin, I used red to represent warmth and happiness a mother feels through the pain she is experiencing. Another example is my use of blue to express the sadness that accompanies postpartum depression, while her areolas, nipples, and stretchmarks still retain a red tone for life.