In late 2021 I finished work on “Mom”, a large-scale porcelain installation for the Bronx Museum’s Biannial, which depicted a snake-like mother figure, with countless hands and breasts, all preforming the work of caring for a child. Since finishing that project I have been making a series of smaller works based on the faces and bodies of mothers.
Some of the Mother Figure portraits are completely imagined. Others are based on selfies that my friends and relatives send me, and a few inspired by the frescoes left behind in Pompeii. I imagine them all as worried moms- not panicked, not distraught, just that kind of frown parents wear on their faces as they hold in their minds all their children’s needs, schedules, preoccupations big and small.
Alongside the portraits I have been making double-sided sculptures that feature a conflated pregnant figure - big bellies in maternity pants mix with the ever-ticking biological clock. An over-sized ear wears the house and car keys as earrings. They are surreal in a way, but they are also precise mental and emotional portraits. Some are even vases.
Studio views, vase sculptures seen from both sides:
A mother in Pompeii (hanging on wall), 2022, Porcelain and underglaze, 14 x 12 x 0.25 inches
Just Making Sure Nothing Bad Happens, 2022, stoneware and underglaze, 13 x 12.5 x 0.25
A splitting headache, 2021, Porcelain, epoxy and underglaze, 12.5 x 11 x 0.5 inches
