Art Pairings: The Arcana Ma Series

Post three of the Art Pairings Blog Series

This is a fun blog series where I pair my different art series with books, music, and activities. These curated lists will be a combination of my direct, and indirect, inspirations as well as other things that I felt would complement a specific series of work.

Today will explore my Arcana Ma Series.

Artist Statement:

Arcana meaning mysteries and Ma as in mother: Mysteries of Motherhood. This series addresses the complex nature of the mother-child relationship and my personal struggles with motherhood as an institution within a patriarchal society. While it highlights emotional taboos, it also features the joyous emotional highs that come with being someone's mama.

The mother-child relationship is one of the most impactful on human society. Yet, the depth of the mothering role is often diminished and polished for the comfort of the collective. There seems to be an unrealistic expectation that a mother should suppress her needs, wants, and desires for the sake of her family, or better yet, she is a natural nurturer and comes with the biological processes to give endlessly, wanting nothing in return. Joan B. Wolf has called this expectation "total motherhood." With this expectation comes the burden of emotional and invisible labor which, by society's default, falls to the mother. The nourishment that a mother is expected to derive from motherhood is the joy of watching her child grow and change, an opportunity mothers themselves are often denied or punished for. 

The institution of motherhood erases the identity of the mother. In a patriarchal society, this erasure is upheld in order to keep women disempowered and the wheels turning.

"Institutions are established social mechanisms and significant cultural practices that regulate human behavior according to the needs of a community, not individuals. Thus, motherhood is not simply biological or innate; it is also a social institution that functions ideologically and politically."

This institution of motherhood is one that I have, at many times, struggled with. Being an independent thinker, feminist, an artist, and a bit of a free spirit, I have often defied authority and contended with institutions. The fight against this cultural erasure of my identity is at the center for me. The title/job consumes everything that makes me a whole human being. I am a mother and that title/duty cannot coexist alongside my ability to be sexual, autonomous, or paid can it?! My wants and desires are selfish if they are not centered solely on my child! I give my child her existence and that alone should be enough to fulfill me! Those narratives are what I choose to actively resist.

Artistic depictions (often by male artists) of the mother-child, though few and far between, are created through a palatable lens that reinforces the nurturing empty vessel the world wants to see mothers fulfill.

 Artists have depicted their own internal/external experiences since the beginning of art, but when women who are mothers do the same they are met with patriarchal dismissal, censorship, and stigmatization. Of course, many of the great male artists had children but they are not faced with the same doubts and stigmas. My roles, as an artist and a mother, are types of labor that are essential to the well-being of humanity yet these roles are each individually underappreciated, underfunded, and undervalued. Every mom is working and that work is invaluable.

My art is a resistance to all I have discussed above. I want my work to highlight the sometimes brutal and painful. I will be honest about my experience within social taboos and the institution of motherhood. Through my work, I make the invisible visible.

Reads:

My blog post on the institution of motherhood and art, read it here.

Nightbitch by Rachael Yodder

Of Women Born by Adrienne Rich

The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-body Problem by Julie Phillips

Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change

Music:

Mother Playlist

Snack:

-A nourishing meal.

-Real whole foods. Fig jam, fine goat cheese. Fried eggs. Wildcrafted salads covered in violet flowers and dandelions with a homemade herbal balsamic and oil dressing. Bacon. Fresh tomatoes from the garden. Fresh baked herbed bread. Local free-range ethical organic beef.

-Nettle infusion. "When in doubt: Nettles"

-Mugwort tincture. "Mugwort Mothers the Mother"

Do:

If you aren't a mom:

Help a mother out. Drop off her favorite take out. Get into the nitty gritty, have a deep talk. Watch her kids and give her the taste of freedom and identity for a whole damn day.

If you are:

Demand more from your partner. Show your children that you are a whole person. Make shit. Be Radical.