Motherhood

My artist friends discovered a wonderful arts and crafts school in the mountains of Tennessee called Arrowmont.  It was also a place to go for one or two weeks in the summer and “get away from it all”, concentrating on nothing but art all day.  Someone else cooked the meals, the cabins needed no cleaning, and our children were in the hands of a grandmother or others back at home.  This white piece was part of an assignment there but it also expresses how I felt at the time.  I cast my face and hands in paper pulp and formed the other parts.  I brought miscellaneous items from home: phone, clock, baby doll in shredded money nest (I ordered the money from the US mint), as I had already visualized the concept in my mind.  If I remember right, my instructor volunteered her old blouse to be dipped in plaster of paris.  This was a large piece.  A van full of young artists often under-estimated the space required for getting things back to Florida.

The other “Motherhood” piece was done at home with a real mop and broom attached.   The photo doesn’t show that these things extend beyond the edges.  I drew myself, and then put “me” inside the plastic bag with all the rest of the trash.  Poor Nancy!