Above are a few photos from a painting I am working on. I did the undercoat many months ago and then put it away and forgot about it. I am happy I did this as I feel I have come a long way as a painter- and as a Mother.
The textures and colours overwhelmed me a little while back, whereas now I am excited about them and enjoying watching it transform. This painting is 80 x 60cm in size- it’s not the biggest painting I have worked on, but not the smallest. I plan to actually paint this a few meters by a few meters- that would be amazing.
My idea behind this painting took a while to form in my head but it is clearer to me now. Birth is arbitrary. Birth is a death. Birth is painful and life changing experience and I feel it is very much taken for granted by our society. We scoff at
teenage mothers or women who aspire to be JUST mothers. We scoff at housewives, domestic ‘woman’s work’- it’s so taken advantage of that most of what mum’s do and go through- is wordless.
I wanted to pay homage to this ‘everyday miracle’- to the agony that is birth. I wanted to congratulate my friends- Natasha and Jarron, with more than just a store bought card. I wanted to congratulate them for making this baby girl and for loving and caring for her.
Raising and shaping a human being is one of the most important jobs in the world- regardless of what our current societal structure tells us.
One day there will be words.
L
x