After having my first baby, my artistic practice shifted dramatically. The days after the birth of my first child were followed by hemorrhaging and postpartum sepsis. They were intense and disorienting. As I recovered from birth and the complications that followed, postpartum anxiety took hold. My need to process the experience of becoming a mother felt compulsive and profound. I started by journaling and sketching. I also began reaching out to other mothers I knew. I connected with them – in deep and intimate ways. Through that process, the birth of my series, Ode to a New Mother, came to be.

I find it is never enough for me to simply process my own experience, alone, on paper. I can truly only make sense of profound life events – like losing my mother or having a child – by integrating the experiences of others into my artmaking. I chose woodcuts in my effort to do just that. I wanted the mothers who agreed to be my models to receive an original artwork of themselves with their baby. So few images truly capture the tenderness shared between mother and baby, and the woodcuts allowed me to give back to the mothers who inspired me. When I am with them, I learn about their struggles and successes during pregnancy, labor, and afterward. I share mine. Those shared stories are what I think about when I later create their woodblock. 

The collaborative aspect of this project has become one of the most rewarding parts of the work so far. The conversations I have with these women have guided my series and goals, sometimes in ways I didn’t expect. Upon receiving their artworks, the mothers will sometimes share their reactions with me later in a text or send a photo of it framed and hanging in their house. One woman who modeled for the print, Nursling, shared this:

It's incredible to see myself breastfeeding. Knowing my grandmother never breastfed any of her 5 children because she was told her inverted nipples wouldn’t work and that formula was better, it feels like healing to breastfeed…I feel proud of myself. I feel beautiful. I feel full of honor to be part of art.

There is so much creative energy needed in gestating, laboring and caring for a baby. I often find myself apologizing for the art I wasn’t making when I was pregnant and taking care of my two small children. I’m trying to stop doing that. So little attention is given to the work that it takes to bear and raise our world's future. My suite of prints is an homage to the rewarding and difficult work of becoming and being a mother. Because taking care of life is the most important work we can do.