Cyanotypes - If Only

Artist Statement:

Women struggle with the societal expectations of motherhood and feel isolated in their guilt about not living up to perfection. This pressure and the judgment women experience is only worsened when their child struggles from physical or mental challenges that may or not be from genetics they carry or environmental factors they were exposed to. Guilt is difficult and complicated to talk about and shouldn’t be dismissed, whether we have control over the causes or not. This guilt is something we can recognize in one another to gain understanding and acceptance and to do better.

This piece captures real quotes from mothers and how it weighs on them while they care for the children they love. Utilizing hand-applied historic photograph processes, the shirt sleeves are printed/sewn with quotes about parental guilt from interviews with local women whose children suffer from ADHD, Autism, Depression, PoTS, cognitive impairment, palate/feeding disorders, etc.

My work is driven by the things that we hide from one another or which keep us separated. Through historical photographic processes, such as cyanotype, the mediums touch as they are exposed to sunlight as we are able to touch when we look past our differences.