MC
Art for me is a catharsis for transformation. I cast my breasts in an effort to feel “all in” in the experience. I did not want to create something outside of me, rather I wanted to be in the art. In casting my breasts, with each peeling of the plaster from me, I began to shed pieces of myself I had adopted from society. What it means to be a good mother, how a wife should behave, you can only be this or that. In creating the art I began to self actualize into a complex being that is vibrant and alive but not limited by societal expectation and roles that I had adopted.
As the art making progressed I was aware that the finished product was not an extension of me. It was a layer of me. Left behind from a moment that no longer reflects the current me. Rather than packaging the art in the dark and maudlin colors of the time period the shedding reflects, I colored the art as a celebration of the journey of self-discovery. The colors are vibrant and capture what it feels like to be fully awake. Comfortable with the past and embracing the uncertainty of the future.
The work is repetitive. Like a print maker. I reuse the same theme and adapt the colors. But the process is entirely manual. Each breast cast either from myself or from a single clay form. The process is the work of women for centuries. Repetitive, yet painstaking by hand.
As my series on Women evolves I have begun to explore themes of power, adding hardware protruding from the breasts to express force and strength exerting from this seemingly soft tissue.
For more information about the artist, please visit her website.