I am a visual artist whose work explores and challenges social ideals of being a mother. I have used art to reconnect with my identity and process my experience of motherhood. I am making the personal public and using my own experience to directly communicate the mixed messages received and the conflicting emotions felt. My work challenges the myth of the perfect mother by making visual the hidden complexities of the maternal experience. The conflict between the seen and the unseen, between the public representation of motherhood and the lived experience of mothering is what interests me. I hope that my work might start a conversation. My process is labour intensive and involves drawing, collage, paper cutouts, printing and textiles, with a strong emphasis on craft. I want the audience to see the hand of the artist in the finished work. This is one of the reasons that I use mixed media and include techniques that were traditionally deemed women's work.
