Surfacing Blue Gold Artwork

Through a healing tactile practice, I seek to understand connection and explore themes of feminism and gendered labor, memory and visibility. My practice centers around photographing daily life, with attention to color and light. I curate these photos as both works on their own and references. I document and find metaphors in childhood and motherhood. Using polymer clay and playdough, I draw material connections to craft, play, and domestic labor, while my imagery reflects the flickering memories of childhood and the early fog of motherhood. Water recurs in my work: a place of calm/chaos, peace/danger; a valuable diminishing resource; constituting ~60% of our bodies. My work takes on the blues of this blue-gold and the rainbows refracted in its ripples. I think about water’s history in my body (has it existed in the sea, the clouds, another body?), how my milk changed to suit my baby’s needs, and how her DNA might stay in me forever through fetal microchimerism. As our cells continue to morph and intertwine, does she remember floating in my womb? If water has memory, what does the body remember? How do our connections persist?  I meditatively mix and blend colors, rolling and squishing the clay with my hands. I use a small clay blade and a sewing pin to shape and place each color onto glass where I build my images. I plan my cyanotypes and prints from photos, working carefully with light or a knife. Repetition of movement and precision of color are healing forces. As my hands stay busy, my mind wanders, unearthing childhood traumas and joys. By elevating “low-brow” child’s materials into a referent for the work of mothers, I’m making visible the often unseen act of mothering and ignored inner worlds of children.