Tag: MOM museum

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Art Caregiving Education Featured Featured Artists International MOM Art Annex

Pandemic Parenting with Amy Swartz & The Drawing Board, by Rachael Grad

Amy Swartz on The Drawing Board for MOM project. Amy is an artist, professor, and mother of 2. Here she is interviewed by Rachael Grad for the final series in our online Pandemic Parenting Exhibit. This is the final presentation for the online exhibit Pandemic Parenting at the Museum of Motherhood, August 2022. The MoM team thanks Rachael for her excellent curation and dissemination of this series.

“Being a mom is giving your daughter the best air pods.”

RG: How did Motherhood change your art?

AS: I need force and pressure to create things. After grad school I was featured in Canadian Art, NOW magazine and other publications. Then my mom died and I got pregnant. Not having deadlines after grad school, it was easy to get derailed. I was gutted, grieving, and stopped making art when I first became a mom. My second child was born 2 years later.

I went about 7 years without showing work. My husband is a carpenter/cabinetmaker who made me a studio in the backyard. I started collecting dead insects – the first was a dragonfly that looked dead and alive at same time. I put together about 20 insects in different boxes, for example, jewelry boxes. I attached one of the army man heads from my husband’s childhood toy soldier collection on a moth. Then I made an army of hundreds of the creatures. My husband made containers for them. I had nowhere to show them and no website.

A parent at my kids’ school is a photographer and took photos in exchange for keeping one. He introduced me to his gallerist friend Jamie Angell, who later visited my studio and showed the work. My children were youngish when I was making that work and being included in lots of shows. When we started The Drawing Board, I started focusing more on that collaborative work. 

The-Drawing-Board_Motion-to-Hum_2020_collaborative-onlien-drawing-using-DrawChat-during-_The-Drawing-Board-Meeting-7

RG: How did you start The Drawing Board?

AS: I knew JJ Lee from graduate school at York University. When I started teaching at the Toronto School of Art, I met Natalie Waldburger. I became an instructor at OCAD University where JJ and Natalie were also teaching. We used to go to a bar right across the street from Michaels, where they gave crayons. We started drawing together at meals/drinks to get out our frustrations. We went over each other’s drawings, crossing things out and redrawing. We found that we worked well together and officially started The Drawing Board in 2016.

It started out more performative and is now more collaborative with other invited artists. In our last show at the Red Head Gallery, we worked with 9 artists who gave assignments or drawings to us. The three of us completed the assignments together.

RG: Why did you start working in this way?

AS: We found ourselves effected by the political issues, intense atmosphere, power structure, and inequity in University meetings. Afterward, we doodled intensely as a creative and healthy way to safely process. We used the fodder and energy to make work. We looked at tensions among creative people within a bureaucracy that guides teachers. We play with grids and office supplies that talk about superstructure.

Pandemic-Parenting_The-Drawing-Board-Poster

RG: How often do you meet?

AS: Attempts to put in a structure haven’t worked. We’re very different but like a family. Somehow, we make work and do things together around our kids’ and our work. We think of something to apply for or do and get it done. We can do a lot very quickly together, for example, we write and get grants and funding in a very organic manner. The Drawing Board has a studio space at OCAD University. We will apply for a show and grant this year if nothing happens with our families.

RG: Do you have any individual projects planned?

AS: I haven’t had a show on my own in 2 years. The last one was cancelled because of the pandemic.

RG: How has your participation in The Drawing Board changed your individual art practice?

AS: In some ways, it hasn’t changed my practice. I’m in “Amy mode” when working alone. But I’m more apt to do things more quickly I hadn’t before tried. I can be a perfectionist on my own. Now I think of Nat and JJ when working on my own and am more open. My children have really needed me in the last few years. I don’t have words for my current work and am not ready to share it.

RG: Is there anything you would change or do differently?

AS: I am slowing down now. I wish that I had slowed down earlier with my kids, family, education, and everything! I want to be more present and patient. Both of my parents died young and didn’t meet my kids. My grandmother died at 103 of COVID during the first few weeks of the pandemic. I wish I hadn’t been so busy in my mind. In teaching this year, I will take out an assignment out of every class to give more time for my students. We need more space to have fallow time as artists. We need to look at the window and not be bombarded with stuff.

RG: What surprised you about being a mother artist?

AS: As a mom, I kept thinking I knew about stereotypes of my children’s stages. Every time it’s not what I imagined. These beings that are my children are not like me at all. They come from me but are not me. I look at kids and am always pleasantly surprised.

See full exhibit Link

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Art Featured Featured Artists Residency

Pandemic Parenting Exhibit with Rachael Grad and Natalie Majaba Waldburger

“My artwork grows itself like children. I set the path, feed them as needed, and create the right environment, then you’re good to go.  Monitor and tweak as needed. You just enjoy what happens after that. There are many unknowns after that but that is part of the joy of trusting and letting go.” ~ Natalie Majaba Waldburger

Natalie Waldburger Pandemic Parenting Exhibit

Bio: Natalie Majaba Waldburger’s current art practice is open-disciplinary and seeks to understand the complexities of respectful collaboration and participatory work in the context of anti-colonial research.  In recent years, institutional critique has become the focus for collaborative art practices as a co-founding member of The Drawing Board.  As an Associate Professor at OCAD U, Natalie has served as Chair for a number of programs in the faculty of Art including the inaugural Ada Slaight Chair of Contemporary Painting and Print Media and, most recently, Interim Chair of Sculpture/Installation and Life Studies and Grievance Chair for OCADFA.  The Life Studies area was the focus of Natalie’s appointment at OCAD U.  Life Studies is a specialization positioned in the Faculty of Art that brings together the arts, sciences, and humanities to cultivate interdisciplinary studio art practices.  These pedagogical approaches speak to Natalie’s own art research practice positioned at the intersection of sustainability, social justice, and ecologically-respectful art practices. [See full exhibit LINK]

Interview with Rachael Grad:

RG: How has your art changed during the pandemic?

NW: My work changed in the last year. I don’t make my own work when teaching, except for the collaborative work with The Drawing Board in which we talk about kids, work, and everything that’s happening in our lives. We are all mothers, teachers, administrators and artists and The Drawing Board became a way to support each other beyond the studio and outside of the institution.  It is an entity and a collective that is porous by necessity and a way to support each other as whole people with intersecting pressures that come with the different roles we have. The Drawing Board is where we can be silly, make commentary and give ourselves permission to try things that might fail. I am currently returning from a sabbatical from teaching at OCAD University. This opportunity allowed me to get out of the school/work grind, go offline, get back to materiality in art.

RG: What was your most recent collaborative project?

NW: The Drawing Board had a collective exhibition at the Red Head Gallery in Toronto during the height of the Omicron wave of the pandemic. We bubbled together and created work in the gallery. We invited 9 other artists to zoom in and participate. Six out of nine of the artists were moms. The guests gave us assignments and directions while we made art together in the gallery. We allow life to come in as commentary as well in our work –  the things that happen in our personal lives, our working lives and our individual artistic pursuits.

RG: What was your most recent individual project?

NW: I just finished a Bio-Art Residency at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. It was 6 weeks on my own, which was difficult for my family. I worked in a Level 1 Bio Lab.

RG: How did you get interested in biology and lab work?

NW: I started art and science work right out of OCAD seeking out anatomical studies in my figurative painting. Then I got interested in other scientific questions about what makes us human, like the human genome project. I later moved into installations then microscopic and cellular based works. I explore things that grow and ways in which materials grow themselves like having a child where you set the conditions, care and nurture the beings, and let them grow the way they want to. The surrounding environment impacts this particular work. My work has used wheatgrass, bioplastics, mycelium (the roots system of a mushroom). For my most recent project, I took molds of Victorian ceiling medallions that represent traditional Toronto architecture and also colonialism. I then filled them with mycelium while in the lab, allowing them to grow into these ornate forms.

RG: Why mycelium?

NW:  I wanted to continue with a material that, once started, would grow autonomously and introducing an element of the unknown to the process.  After doing some research I found that mycelium was used in research to predict the growth patterns of tumours. Because mycelium grows more quickly, in 2 to 3 weeks, it is a useful predictor of tumour behaviour. This resonated with me because my son has a brain tumor, diagnosed at 9 years old. The symptoms manifested initially as paralysis effecting his face, then arms and legs on the right side. He had to learn to walk again and undergo surgery, rehab and chemotherapy. It’s been challenging and yet amazing to see him grappling with this while still being a kid in school and eventually succeeding getting almost straight A’s in school. The disease has been unpredictable, and we never know what to expect. I’ve learned so much about Neurodiversity and navigating both the health and education systems.

RG: will you continue your research now that you’re back in Toronto?

NW: I’ll continue exploring but I don’t have the same lab access in Toronto. Life Studies will be able to build a mini-lab through a generous donation from the Joan and Clifford Hatch Foundation so that I can introduce some of these processes to Life Studies students. We can purchase an autoclave, which is a big giant sterilizing machine, alongside our current microscopes.  Next for our order is DNA sequencing equipment and growing equipment for plants. Interestingly, Life Studies was partnering with MaRS and Sick Kids and while on a tour of the SickKids research area I saw the lab housing my son’s tumor, two years after his surgery. Frequently, my research has mirrored and predicted what happens in my life.

RG: What’s next for you?

NW: In October my most recent residency work will be shown at Art Quarters on St. Clair Avenue West in Toronto. The works, alongside mosses and terrariums will likely be installed on walls, not hung from the ceiling as in New York.

RG: Anything else you’d like to share on motherhood and art?

NW: Being a mother is why I explored this way of making. At first, I used a paintbrush and encaustic – body-like materials that do their own thing. Having a child encouraged me to give up more control and make the unknown even more the driver of this work. I enjoy being open to results and thinking about how both science and art practices speak to each other. My materials are experimental, and I employ the same letting go and relinquishing of control that is necessary in the collaborative process and in parenting.

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Art Blog Books Featured Artists Literature Residency

Meet the Newest Artist Resident at MoM: Gloria Munoz

We are excited to announce our newest Guest Artist in Residence, Gloria Muñoz! During her residency, Gloria hopes to focus on developing her novel which is set in 1940s Colombia during the period known as La Violencia. With elements of fabulism, historical fiction, and eco-poetics, the story of two sisters who are displaced by violence and left to fend for themselves is a testament to how we can experience wonder, and even magic, after loss.

Continue reading to find out more about Gloria.

Gloria Muñoz is a Colombian-American writer, literary translator, and advocate for multilingual literacy and writing. She was awarded the Academy of American Poets 2019 Ambroggio Prize and the Gold Medal Florida Book Award. She has also been honored by the Highlights Foundation’s 2022 Diverse Verse Fellowship, the Macondo Workshop, Lumina’s Multilingual Nonfiction Writing Award, a Las Musas Mentorship for Latine and nonbinary authors, a New York State Summer Writers Institute Fellowship, a St. Petersburg Arts Alliance Muse Award, a Creative Pinellas Grant, the Estelle J. Zbar Poetry Prize, the Bettye Newman Poetry Award, a Gen Yes Doris Duke Foundation Artist Award, a Think Small to Think Big Artist Grant, and a St. Petersburg Arts Alliance’s Jim Rolston Professional Development Grant. Gloria was part of the inaugural Tin House YA workshop and has presented her writing, research, and advocacy work at conferences, colleges, public schools, and book festivals across the United States and Latin America. Her writing has appeared in Puerto del Sol, VIDA Review, Acentos Review, Lumina, the Rumpus, Yes Poetry, Juke Joint, Best New Poets, Sweet, Burrow Press, Cosmonauts Avenue, Entropy, Wildness, Cagibi, and elsewhere. Muñoz is also the author of the chapbook Your Biome Has Found You. She holds degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and the University of South Florida. A proponent of cross-disciplinary collaboration, Gloria has worked alongside botanists, musicians, dancers, historians, classicists, visual artists, conservationists, and neuroscientists. She is a co-founder of Pitch Her Productions and she is one-half of the songwriting team Moonlit Musíca. Most days she writes, teaches, and works with environmental nonprofits.

Also, Announcing This Week:

MoM is also pleased to announce, a conversation about the film, Adventures in Miscarriage with director Cheryl Furjanic, who presented her film trailer at the MoM Conference in 2022 – in person in St. Petersburg in March!

She received incredible feedback and has just launched a new version of the trailer and a summer fundraiser for the film. Here is the link. https://watch.showandtell.film/watch/adventures-in-miscarriage-summer-fundraiser

It will be up until July 31st. Then, on Wednesday, July 27th at 6:30pm ET, she will be hosting a conversation about the film and the current state of miscarriage care. Here’s the link for that: https://nyu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1xNcM1coSLmlMZAJCKXDlA

We are excited to support and view this important film which offers a perspective into this generally underreported experience!

If you are interested in applying for a guest residency here at MoM, please go to our website HERE: https://bit.ly/3uRgugm  to find out more. BE SURE TO HURRY! Spots have been filling FAST! We hope that future tours of the space will be available soon, but they are by appointment only in Artist Enclave Historic Kenwood: “where art lives.”

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Art Blog Featured Featured Artists Feminism MOM Art Annex motherhood Residency

MoM Welcomes Guest Artist Tara Blackwell

We are excited to announce our newest Guest Artist, Tara Blackwell. Tara is a mixed media pop artist leveraging the tension between fun and social commentary in her artwork.

Continue reading to find out more about Tara and her journey.

I am a mixed media pop artist living and working in Connecticut. In my work, I play with bold colors, layers, and texture, often incorporating nostalgic pop culture to explore contemporary social issues. At a glance, my paintings depict a childlike innocence, but there is usually underlying social commentary. While I have fun exploring imagery from my childhood, at the same time, I am delving into insecurities that go way back to being an awkward girl in middle school – that “picked last in gym class” feeling. My “Saturday Morning” series is all about resiliency and perseverance. Remember digging in the cereal box as a kid to find that prize? These little characters are symbolically shown in positions of independence, strength, and success. The process of creating this work has personally helped me to conjure up my own inner strength and to envision my “prize” within my reach.

In the Summer of 2020, like many of us, my daughter (Lila) and I spent a lot of time together indoors due to the pandemic. Lila was 12 and in her first year of middle school at a new school and navigating the typical challenges that I remember all too well from that age. But the isolation and fear of getting sick was an unexpected turn. Then—we saw the horrific murder of George Floyd; Another brutal killing (at the hands of the police) of a human being who looks like us. Black Lives Matter protests erupted stronger and louder than ever and living downtown in a major city, we could just step outside and be part of the movement. Together, Lila and I began to pour our feelings into our art.

I was still working on my Saturday Morning series when Lila suggested the use of Powerpuff Girls, a cartoon linked to her generation, not mine. I had been focusing on my own childhood memories in this work, but when I started exploring Lila’s suggested reference, my focus shifted to her experience at that moment. As a mother, I not only thought about how I could protect her but how could I help her to discover her own voice and inner strength. My Saturday Morning series shifted direction and I tapped into my fierceness as a mother– as a Black mother of a Black girl. The Powerpuff Girl painting became the piece titled “Justice Now.” I consider that piece to be the beginning of a powerful collaboration between me and Lila.

If you are interested in applying for a guest residency here at MoM, please go to our website HERE: https://bit.ly/3uRgugm  to find out more. BE SURE TO HURRY! Spots have been filling FAST! We hope that future tours of the space will be available soon, but they are by appointment only in Artist Enclave Historic Kenwood: “where art lives.”

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Blog Caregiving Education Featured Feminism Living Board Announcements motherhood Opportunities USF

Join Us in Welcoming MOM’s New Living Board President Zabrina Shkurti

Zabrina Shkurti

Hello Mom Family! We ask you to join us in welcoming our new incoming Living Board President for 2022-2023 Zabrina Shkurti! We can’t wait to see all she will bring in her new position here at MOM.

Zabrina is a Florida native, part of the English Department at the University of South Florida as a PhD Student, and a mother of two boys. We celebrate the first official anniversary of the MOM Living Board and welcome her to the her new position as team member and President!

Q. What led you on your path toward becoming an educator, scholar and being interested in mother studies?

As cliche as it may seem, becoming a mother is what led me down this path! When I found out I was having twin boys, I started researching everything related to motherhood. As though the thought of having two new humans wasn’t overwhelming enough, the amount of literature, and conflicting literature at that, really ignited this scholarly interest. I wanted to know how women have been able to do it all through the years and as a literature scholar, I am particularly interested in how mothers are portrayed and treated in literature. 

Q. How did you find out about the Museum of Motherhood? 

I was attending the IAMAS conference in Fall 2021 and one of the speakers, Dr. Michelle Hughes Miller, brought up this organization. I immediately looked it up online and after perusing the site, I decided to reach out to see if there was anything I could do to assist with such an amazing mission. 

Q. What made you want to work with MOM? 

Mothers need a space to connect, reflect, and process with others who are familiar with the all-consuming pressures of motherhood. When I discovered this space, I quickly realized that this organization offered a community where women could do just that. For me, it is critical that mothers have the space to recognize their importance and their identities outside of motherhood as well and the residency program here gives women that chance to disconnect and focus on their own creations. 

Q. What are your plans for your time here at the museum? Or what are you most excited about to do in your new role here as Living Board President at MOM? 

I am most excited to be part of a community that offers support to other creatives and scholars–I hope that we can grow our community significantly so that the local area can come to recognize the important influence that the MOM organization can have not only locally, but globally as well. 

Q. What has been your most memorable experience through your work so far? Or what are you most proud of in your line of work up until this point?

I think the most significant aspect of my work thus far is really identifying a need in the world to help mothers recognize their own self-worth outside of just being moms. 

Q. What would you consider to be one of the most impactful moments of what you would consider to be the act of “mothering” in your life? Was it something you personally experienced or acted yourself? 

Connecting with other mothers who are also struggling with this notion of perfecting motherhood has probably been most impactful for me as a mother–I quickly realized that there is no such thing as perfection. We are all just trying to do the best we can, our kids as well, and if we just allow for a little space and a lot of grace, we’ll be able to make the most of this life together. Adopting this mindset has helped me enjoy the messy imperfection a little more.

Q. What would you consider to be one of the most impactful moments in HERstory that has impacted who you are today?

Just really starting to embrace this idea that as a woman, even though I can do it all, it doesn’t mean I have to. It is okay to ask for help from others and in fact, knowing when to spend time dedicated to yourself is a sign of strength and dare I say, wisdom.

Q. What would you consider to be a fun fact about you that you would want to share with the MOM family?  

I think I already gave this one away in an earlier question, but I am the mom of twin boys! 

 Q. What thoughts would you like to leave our MOM family with as you begin this new journey with them through your future work here at MOM? 

Honestly, the mantra I have tried to adopt and stick to since becoming a mother is to never let go of my own dreams–just because I became a mother does not mean I need to sacrifice everything else that is important to me. Hopefully one day my kids will look at me and the work I have done and think to themselves, damn that woman is unstoppable. 

Thank you for reading and getting to know our new Living Board President! Be sure to keep up with our blog and social media accounts as we prepare for Women’s History Month this March. Great things are to come!

Passionate about topics related to m/otherhood? Reproductive identities? Art? HERstory? Mothers Making Art? Mothers in Academia? Women and Gender Studies? Lifelong students can follow the Museum of Motherhood here, join our new ONLINE COMMUNITY, and we appreciate any and all support? Be sure to follow us on social media and check out our virtual storefront for merchandise!

If you have any inquiries regarding getting involved with MOM or are interested in being part of our Living Board, you can find out information about what being a board member entails under our About tab or clicking the link HERE: Living Museum Annual Volunteers – Join Us! – MUSEUM OF MOTHERHOOD (mommuseum.org)

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Featured

M.A.M.A 51: Art and words by Clara Aldén

The Mother of Frankenstein’s Monster, 2021

The Mother of Frankenstein’s Monster (2021) researches the production of bodies and identities in relation to motherhood. ” My children were produced by and within my body”. Production continues after birth: children’s bodies grow and their identities develop. The identity of the mother is also born in relation to the child’s birth. This inquiry revolves around the idea of maternal “split subjectivity” and the child as an “unruly descendant” of the mother. It researches the conjunction of symbiosis and struggles present within a mother-child relationship.

The project includes an audio essay intended to be listened to at home. Listen to it while you are doing the dishes, or picking up toys from the living room floor. It departs from Mary Shelley’s famous novel Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus (1818) and invites the listener to reflect upon maternal aspects present within their own lives, within their own homes.

Link to audio essay (10:24min) here. 

THE MOTHER OF FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER, Essay by Clara Aldén

Are you familiar with the story about Frankenstein’s monster? 

Direct your gaze upon your child, and listen to this:

Dr Frankenstein was just a student when he started the creation of his creature. He struggled for two years to conceive his baby; stealing bones from graveyards, and intestines from slaughterhouses and autopsies. To create human life was his greatest ambition. 

Yet, when the creature opened his eyes the only thing Dr Frankenstein felt was fear.

Why was he frightened?

I think he could sense that he had lost control over his creation. 

Have you ever felt that you have lost control over your creations?

I imagine that Doctor Frankenstein didn’t understand what he was getting himself into when he conceived his baby. 

My children were materialized out of a moment of loss of control. We lost control for a second and they started existing. The first time it happened I wasn’t aware of it for several weeks. The second time I immediately felt a new presence within my body. 

“The idea of two people occupying one body is bizarre and disturbing. And yet, we all began life inside the body of another human being—immersed in a systemic interchange, absorbing both nutrients from the maternal body and hormonal derivatives of her emotions, while pumping out refuse through her bodily orifices.“

My pregnancy felt parasitic. I struggled my entire life to become autonomous, and now I was slowly dividing into two. My body swelled and grew. Inside my body grew the body of another.

My insides were suddenly someone else’s outsides and I bumped my stomach on tables as I tried to navigate this universe. 

“As I lean over in my chair to tie my shoe, I am surprised by the graze of this hard belly on my thigh. I do not anticipate my body touching itself, for my habits retain the old sense of my boundaries. In the ambiguity of bodily touch, I feel myself being touched and touching simultaneously, both on my knee and my belly. The belly is other since I did not expect it there, but since I feel the touch upon it, it is me.”

It is impossible to physically tell if a pregnant person is one or two people.

The subject of the pregnant is split. 

Do you recognize the sensation of your mind being two places at once? 

How many creatures do you have within your care? 

Look around you: we’ve already established that there are children within your care. But apart from that? Any pets? Or old parents that need care? Any plants that need water? How many things would not survive if you just got up and walked away?

Like Dr Frankenstein did.

During pregnancy a body is created. But a person is not just a body. Dr Frankenstein created a body but abandoned it immediately after birth. He got scared and ran away. His monster was left to care for himself. He wandered around trying to find company, but everywhere he turned he got violently rejected. The only thing he craved was love and affection. When he realized that this was something he would never obtain, he turned to his creator:

“Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall be virtuous.”

My children are neither monsters nor fallen angels. But they are my unruly descendants. 

Physically detached from me. Free to roam the world. It is impossible to understand where I end and they begin. 

Look at your baby: think about the complexity of bones, arteries and blood cells, nerves that exist under their skin. Imagine the universe that inhabits their minds. 

For the longest time I wasn’t able to face my children. I looked at them but did not see them. I was afraid that if I did, truly look at them,  they would be pulled away from me like Eurydice was from Orpheus when he couldn’t keep himself from looking back at her on their way back up from the underworld.

I tried to make a drawing of my eldest, when he was just a couple of weeks old and realized that from now on, everything I produce, with hands, mind, voice, would stand in the shadow of the creativity of my womb.

Nothing could ever compete with these creations. 

These creations also made it perfectly clear that they demanded my total focus and attention. No time for other artifacts. 

What happens when the needs and wishes of your creations collide with your own? 

Frankenstein’s monster started out as an idéa that grew into an obsession and then into a body.  The movements of this newborn body revealed a free will, detached from the intentions of its creator.

“Sometimes words trigger off cataclysms, sometimes acts, sometimes physical conditions.“

The monster followed in the footsteps of his creator. But somewhere during this race across the globe the roles were shifted; the antagonist became the protagonist, and the creator started chasing his creation.

Text with full reference list can be found here.

More about Clara

Clara Aldén (b.1988) is a Swedish artist working and living in Gothenburg. She holds a BFA from Bergen Art Academy (UIB, NO) and a MFA from HDK-Valand (GU, SE), where she graduated in 2021. Her work has been displayed in Västerbottens Museum (SE), Göteborgs Konsthall (SE), Index (SE) and Bergen Kunsthall (NO) to name a few. 

Clara works with sculpture, drawing and text-based art. Her work is situated within the private sphere, and she employs her immediate surroundings to research general societal structures. Since becoming a mother her work has mainly focused on domestic and maternal thematics. Within Clara’s artistic research, motherhood is considered a practice and not a state of being. Likewise, this practice is not considered to be limited by biological bounds. She is inspired by Donna Haraway’s thoughts on kin-making, and even if the maternal interest grew out of her biological motherhood, her thoughts and research stretch away from the immediate biological connotations and wishes to explore the practice of maternity in the expanded notion. The notion of care, regarding interruption and control loss as a positive force, and trying to work in a relational and non-autonomous manner are examples of maternal aspects important within her work. 

Procreate Project, the Museum of Motherhood and the Mom Egg Review are pleased to announce the 49th edition of this scholarly discourse. Literature intersects with art to explore the wonder and the challenges of motherhood. Using words and art to connect new pathways between the academic, the para-academic, the digital and the real, as well as the everyday: wherever you live, work and play, the Art of Motherhood is made manifest. #JoinMAMA #artandmotherhood

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Art Blog Education Featured Featured Artists Feminism Media MOM Art Annex motherhood Opportunities Uncategorized

Visit MOM’s New Storefront With Guest Artist Feature: Luci Westphal

Visit our new MOM Storefront

MOM is thrilled to announce the opening of our new online store! In addition to our awesome new branded product line we will be featuring a new guest artist quarterly throughout the year. In every case, the artist feature will be something that is in-line with MOM’s values of multicultural inclusivity and will pull from multiple mediums. To that end, we are pleased to include Luci Westphal (2/22-5/2022) along with a few special items from her diverse portfolio. The link to the store is here and please read on to learn more about Luci and her creations.

Luci is a documentary filmmaker, artist, and photographer originally from Hamburg, Germany, who came to Florida to study film. After 20 years of traveling, working, and making art in Brooklyn, Berlin, and Colorado, she has returned to the south to join the Artist Enclave of Historic Kenwood (AEHK) in St. Petersburg, Florida. Now, with wonder and delight, she is able to explore and capture the lovely Florida landscapes, fauna, and flora with fresh eyes while continuing work on the third post-production edit of her film t All’s Well and Fair. 

Documentary Filmmaker and Photographer Luci Westphal

Luci is devoted to making the world a happier place. To that end, her social media and business support that missive. She has been photographing nature wherever she has lived or traveled. She is also at work on the third installment of a documentary that follows three punk moms through their trials, tribulations, and evolutions. 

Here are some more specifics about Luci and her endeavors.

LUCI WESTPHAL IN HER WORDS:

  • From 2010 until 2017, I published the weekly video series Moving Postcard, which gives you a glimpse every week of a special location, event or person. Always free to watch and share. 
  • In 1996, I began filming the on-going documentary project All’s Well and Fair. Every ten years (1996, 2006, 2016) I interview Florida punk rock moms Tina, Margaret, and Rachel, plus their children (!) and then release a new version of the film. The third version is currently in post-production. See Luci’s Patreon page here to view a trailer of the film and support her work.
  • In 2017, I launched Happier Place where I publish most of my photo essays and writing and sometimes videos that are a continuation of the Moving Postcard web series.
  • And all along the way, I photograph anything I find appealing: nature, animals, street art, cityscapes…
  • Please follow me: Twitter: https://twitter.com/luciwest Insta: https://www.instagram.com/luciwest/

Instagram: @luciwest

Twitter: @luciwest

We have asked Luci to join us as a featured artist in our online storefront because she represents the best in all of us: a willingness to work hard and play nicely with others, she is a woman who has demonstrated awesome filmmaking, art, and business skills, and she is a key member of the MOM community in St. Pete.

It has been our distinct pleasure to welcome Luci to MOM as our first featured artist at the MOM Storefront online. and also a person of fortitude and resilience, who happens to be as devoted to trees as we are.

About Our New Featured Artist Platform:

Our Invitation: You are invited to participate in our ‘Featured Artist’ segment at the Museum of Motherhood online. Our intention is to highlight the work of a broad community of individuals as we collect, preserve, and disseminate articles, books, artifacts, ephemera, images, and research on all aspects of the art, science, and history of women, m/others and families, including reproductive identities, Mother Earth, and spirituality. 

Our storefront actively promotes members within our community for the purposes of starting great conversations, creating thought-provoking exhibits, and sharing information, education, and works from a diverse, inclusive, and multicultural perspective. 


It is our desire that these works, for sale, need not be exclusive to our site, but rather support the creator of the works as well as MOM through their sales through our storefront. Artist is responsible for shipping and shipping cost as well as returns. All processing happens through MOM with the bulk of all monies going back to the artist.

Write us if you are interested in participating and make sure to include a sample of your work: INFO@MOMmuseum.org

For any additional questions regarding who we are and what we do here at MOM, along with other programs we offer, be sure to browse our website or email us at Info@MOMmuseum.org. We are excited to start this new program with our community of artists at MOM to support their talents and causes for the community at large. Be sure check re to check out our storefront after browsing to support these fantastic individuals.

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Things In-between

By Rebecca Louise Clarke

Of course, one day there will be a museum collection about the pandemic. In fact, they’re working on it right now, collecting the pieces of a crisis as it unfolds in the hope that somehow it won’t get lost in the movement of time, that one day we will see ourselves or have ourselves be seen.

But knowing that history involves selection, that some pieces of memory will necessarily be chosen over others and therefore some of us will blow away, I want to show a vision of my life, my family’s life over the last two years. It could be two years, one or three because who knows? It has been a time, in which time has been lost. Each day seems the same and yet things move forward.

These things are my daughter’s/mine/her Dad’s. These moments are my own, enmeshed in the fabric of my family.

I don’t want our memories to be swallowed up by that terrifying giant; the pandemic; our experiences to be defined by a turbulent era of history. The little things that together make up our lives, have been injured, but still, those little things keep breathing. Most of the time they drag themselves, tired and bloody, but now and then, they unleash a triumphant boogie.

Our ginger tomcat died. The neighbour’s house was torn down.  Adult teeth erupted, school started, stopped and started again.  And the things in-between.

Here is my vision. A basket of things from me to you.

Mask
Family
Hieroglyphics


Spoonville
‘Let it go’
Feelings
Breathe
Broken house
Goodbye
Storm
Offerings
Angel

Photographs by Richard Clarke and Rebeca Louise Clarke [Original interview here].

Rebecca Louise Clark

Rebecca Louise Clarke is an author, scholar and media artist who is interested in the ways mothering and memory are depicted in museums. Her book Representations of Mothers and the Maternal in Museums, to be published in early 2023 by Routledge is currently in development and examines the ways mothering is represented in museum collections and exhibitions. During her residency with the Museum of Motherhood (M.O.M.), Rebecca is doing an in-depth case study of M.O.M. Her analysis seeks to discover ways that experiences of mothering as voiced by mothers themselves, can challenge heteronormative, stereotypical ideals about motherhood and how innovative museum practice can disrupt conventional ideals about motherhood.

If you are interested in applying for a guest residency here at MOM, please go to our website HERE: https://bit.ly/3uRgugm  to find out more. BE SURE TO HURRY! Spots have been filling FAST! We hope that future tours of the space will be available soon, but they are by appointment only in Artist Enclave Historic Kenwood: “where art lives.”

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Mom Residency Highlights Artist and Educator Donna Lewis

Artist and Educator Donna Lewis

As this year comes to a close and everyone celebrates this holiday season we wanted to share with you all the last MOM Art Annex Resident of 2021 . Donna Lewis is an accomplished artist and educator who values the sacredness of mother earth, and has found it to be a source of constant comfort throughout her life. It is from her experiences with nature, and her own experiences as a mother and caregiver, that she expresses her creative spirit through art.

Throughout her residency with us this December, we hope you will be able to see the beauty of the world through her art, and come to appreciate the lasting connections we make with the world around us that shape who we all come into being with each new phase of life. Continue reading to personally hear from Donna to learn more about her art, her career, and life.

I turned 65 this year. With that change, I retired from my job of twenty-five years as an educator. After teaching art and architecture to high school students, I am now learning to let go of the frenetic pace, the relentless work-cycle, and focus on my own desires and passions.

I am learning to release my creative, art-making self in order to heal and bring forth a new chapter in my life. But, it is not always easy.

Being committed to the process of creativity means living in synchronicity. There is a constant need to balance movement with downtime, exercise with rest, and the mundane with the magnificent. I realize the importance of allowing myself the freedom to let my mind and heart wander, as I slowly learn to enjoy, and feel deserving, of what is to come. 

I search for clarity about some major life-decisions, taking the time to swim, to walk, to breathe, and to use the materials at hand to better nurture ideas and self-reflection.

Nature and trees are important to me. They have supported me, cleansed me, and calmed me throughout these many years. A walk in the park or alongside the river has always allowed for invaluable insight and consolation to arise, even in the most difficult times. Even in the midst of a busy teaching schedule, or personal challenges, a weekend in nature, or a summer trip to the sea, has inspired me and lifted me in inexplicable ways.

Treehouse, Watercolor by Donna Lewis

But, fleeing the city isn’t always necessary. Some of my best ideas have arisen during my treks through New York. I have been a resident of Manhattan for four decades and experienced the concrete jungle as a place with pockets of nature to discover, even amidst the hustle and bustle. Luckily, I considered Washington Square Park to be my backyard, the West Side Highway my exercise spot, and the playgrounds as a great source of recreation for my children.

Public spaces are significant and all-important to life in the city. They allow families and individuals to connect with each other to embrace places that improve our sense of wellbeing, while calming our senses, and relaxing our minds. 

Manhattan is a place with rivers on either side. Urban planners have come to realize the importance of these natural assets. Parks, green spaces, and piers with plantings have become the new vision for the city, and I am grateful for that. 

Much in the same way that nature connects us to our mother, the earth— my paintings connect me with my soul’s calling. We are intertwined like trees, like rivers, like oceans, and like the air we breathe. The entwinement expands outward in my heart, through my family of origin and my own family of procreation.

Three Sisters, Mixed Media by Donna Lewis

I am appreciating the perennial nature of mothering. It never stops. Unlike the retirement I am taking from school, my adult children and I continue to develop our inextricable bond. As I care for my aging mother, Leila (now 88) with my four sisters, I watch the changing seasons, the expanding experiences, and the cycle of life: being a child, having a child, and caring for others’ children, and mothers has enlightened my existence, and influenced my artistic practice.

‘The Trees’, featured here in this exhibit, are a window into all of these things and hopefully reflect the whimsy, terror, and acceptance of the changes that are all around us, all the time. We cannot separate ourselves from that which we are. So, I hope to continue to find the courage and fortitude for this next phase of the journey, and I hope to do it with creative gusto, a little more in balance, perhaps at a slightly more relaxed pace. 

We here at MOM are so grateful to have Donna as our newest resident artist and are so grateful for her fantastic contribution to M.O.M.’s archives as she gives us glimpses into her work, her creative process, and unique perspective. Also be sure to follow us on Instagram for updates as well as more of her thoughts on our residency while she stays this December! Happy Holidays Everyone!

Instagram: @museumofmotherhood

If you are interested in applying for a guest residency here at MOM, please go to our website HERE: https://bit.ly/3uRgugm  to find out more. BE SURE TO HURRY! Spots have been filling FAST! We hope that future tours of the space will be available soon, but they are by appointment only in Artist Enclave Historic Kenwood: “where art lives.”

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MAMA Issue 50: Mothers and trees. Roots and families. Art and love.

The Mother Tree

I want to write about mothers and trees. Roots and families. Art and love.

Last year our world appeared to be on fire. Headlines captured devastating events around the globe. From politics to pandemics, the news cycle, as well as our personal lives, were upended in so many ways. In the midst of one of many California blazes, a story about a redwood matriarch dubbed the Mother of the Forest in Santa Cruz, California caught my attention.

Mother of the Forest is one of the tallest trees in Santa Cruz Park. A symbolic womb at her core forms an 8 x 13 foot room, or a hobbit hole, or a sacred space — depending on your perspective.   

I have become obsessed with trees. 

Trees are a testimony to patience and resilience. They offer shelter, contribute to healthy ecosystems, and fight climate change. Redwoods protect and support each other as well as other sapling growth by creating family circles sprouted from the roots of a parent tree. These families may or may not be genetically related. These lessons in cooperation can be a metaphor for humanity in its current fragmented state.

One month ago, I headed back to the MOM Art Annex in Florida after a prolonged absence. Ready to explore the next steps with our community and see to the ongoing growth of the Museum project, I arrived energized. Rising in the midst of display artifacts, art, and birthing objects, a new exhibit towers in the heart of the Annex. Artist Helen Hiebert’s Mother Tree is a brilliant illuminated sculpture made of paper and thread on loan to us for the year.

In preparation for the Mother Tree’s arrival, I pursued the book Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard, a deeply inspiring tale of scientific discovery and maternal care. I pondered our new directions with the Museum of Motherhood and gladly welcomed a guest artist residency proposal by Polly Wood, which included constructing an empty nest as a ceremonial acknowledgement of her daughter going off to college.

“A nest,” I exclaimed. “How timely for the Mother Tree’s arrival.”

Polly and I spent a glorious two weeks spinning magic. A blog about her residency is online at MOM. The next guest artist arrives in mid-December with work featuring among other things, landscapes and trees in gorgeous muted watercolors. 

Polly Wood working on her “Empty Nest” at MOM

As the year winds down, I gratefully acknowledge the manner in which I’ve been able to spend time with emerging mother artists here in St. Petersburg, and also family as well. My son, his wife, and their baby have been on-site for the last six weeks, crowded into the MOM Art Annex’s tiny space– along with the exhibits, myself, and visiting guests. My one-year old granddaughter crawls around the carefully childproofed perimeter while I proudly chase after her.  

In these accompanying photos, I introduce my granddaughter to a world of female sheroes, the art of motherhood, and a variety of messages aimed at empowering women and girls. The images for this MAMA exhibit also include my own self-portrait surrounded by the Mother Tree’s yarn roots in a symbolic gesture of rebirth, renewal, and generational connection. 

Martha Joy Rose ; rebirth with Helen Hiebert’s “Mother Tree” sculpture and Polly Wood’s “Nest”

Every major tree metaphor reminds me to trust in the slow, yet, steady growth of the museum project. Good things take time. Like a redwood, we want the museum to stand as a testament to the ages. We want to collaborate with our community and our surroundings. These things develop and deepen slowly. We are the connection. We are the women. We are the love. We are the trees.

If you would like to donate to our Mother Tree acquisitions campaign, please consider helping us purchase the Mother Tree in perpetuity by making a tax-deductible donation here.

In gratitude and perseverance, Martha Joy Rose

Frank and Sojourner Truth at MOM 2021

Raising the next generation of empowered humans means teaching them about our past: our struggles, problems, issues, and herstory. At the MOM Art Annex we do exactly that, while building towards our future by developing the footprint for the Museum of Motherhood project as an international education and exhibition destination.

I look forward hopefully, understanding deeply the importance of engaging with people of all ages in an inclusive, supportive, and smart environment. Together we can elevate the voices and artistic endeavors of all humans, and in our case, especially m/others, procreators, dreamers, childless by choice, women in history and present day sheroes– as well as those who have suffered loss and infertility.

My granddaughter and I have started this conversation early and often – even though she is still pre-verbal. A picture is worth a thousand words in this case!

Martha Joy Rose: Martha Joy Rose is a community organizer and Museum of Motherhood founder. Her work has been published across blogs and academic journals and she has performed with her band Housewives On Prozac around the world. She is the NOW-NYC recipient of the Susan B. Anthony Award, her Mamapalooza Festival Series has been recognized as “Best in Girl-Power Events”, and her music has appeared on the Billboard Top 100 Dance Charts. She founded the Museum of Motherhood in 2003, created the Motherhood Foundation 501c3 non-profit in 2005, saw it flourish in NYC from 2011-2014, and then pop up at several academic institutions. After teaching Mother Studies at the college level, she moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. Her current live/work space is devoted to the exploration of mother-labor & performance art while she oversees the continued growth of the Museum of Motherhood project.

Helen Hiebert: Helen Hiebert constructs installations, films, artists’ books and works in paper using handmade paper as her primary medium. Her sculpture Mother Tree serves as a symbol of the vulnerability, strength and sense of community she feels as a mother. The seven-foot tall handmade paper dress/tree features single strands of thread which extend from the bodice of the dress, representing mother’s milk, and cascade to the floor, transforming via crochet into roots which pile up, filling the surrounding space as a tree’s roots would fill the ground beneath it. The transformation from dress to tree and root to soil symbolizes the mother as a provider and nurturer throughout human development. Since her inception, hundreds of people have contributed to crocheting roots with messages of family, friendship, and affirmation.

Procreate Project, the Museum of Motherhood and the Mom Egg Review are pleased to announce the 50th edition of this scholarly discourse. Literature intersects with art to explore the wonder and the challenges of motherhood. Using words and art to connect new pathways between the academic, the para-academic, the digital and the real, as well as the everyday: wherever you live, work and play, the Art of Motherhood is made manifest. #JoinMAMA #artandmotherhood