This body of work depicts my ongoing transition into motherhood. Made while my daughter was a toddler and before I was pregnant with my son, it consists of multiple double-sided vases. The vases depict pregnant bellies, nurturing bodies, ticking biological clocks, and modernist abstract sculpture.
One side of this vase sculpture shows a body made up of nurturing breasts and an ear, adorned with house and car keys instead of earrings. Throughout ancient history earrings were used to depict social status, marking their wearers as slaves, prostitutes, or belonging to a high social class, depending on the time and place. Here, the keys stand for privilege- having a car, having a home, as well as depicting a ball-and-chain relationship to the maternal role- the one who, as the title describes, "makes and supports life, that picks up and drops off". The other side shows a pregnant belly wearing maternity pants- the only item of clothing ever designed solely with a woman's comfort in mind. Depicting the pregnant belly like this means removing it from the allegorical category, in which it stands for fertility or abundance or other feel-good concepts, and instead it represents a pregnant individual whose body has changed into a drastically different shape. As with all my work about maternity, this piece seeks to expand the allegorical role of the mother into realms that jive with the lived reality with being one- something miraculous, heroic, but also ordinary and difficult.
The Patina of Old Forms, 2022, porcelain, glaze, and acrylic, 12 x 9 x 7 inches
Blue Jean Baby Ear Goddess, 2022, porcelain, stoneware, glaze, underglaze, 14 x 12 x 7 inches
You Have Everything?, 2022, porcelain and stonware with underglaze glaze and acrylic,
12 x 12 x 6 inches