MATERNAL LOVE - 2022

Materials: Vintage photos, acrylic paint on rice paper gel prints, organza and tulle fabrics, mesh washcloth, watercolor, ink,

Size: 8”x10”

Two sets of mammal mothers w/offspring in the ocean (a place I find mysterious and rather scary frankly). Both duos appear bonded, protectively touching. The human is my Grandmother with my mother as a young woman before I was born. Floating above them is a whale with her young calf. But where a whale relationship is probably more or less as simple as it appears, human bonds are always more complicated than they look, especially compared to other animals. I wonder what we have in common in our family situations-what’s instinctive and what’s learned?

I didn’t know my grandmother really. I have quite a few memories which as an adult I discovered were all basically from just one summer. Which just goes to show that our memories aren’t always real, but sometimes fantasies or even projections. Photos of them together are fascinating to me as I wonder how my grandmother impacted the woman and mother she came to be.