I'm elated, over-the-moon, and bursting with excitement that today I helped Lauren Nye (of the Susquehanna Art Museum) install the show I've curated. Mythologies of Motherhood will be on view from this Wednesday through June 26th. That means it is open to the public for FOUR MONTHS, including 4 FREE Third in the Burgs, and one FREE workshop on visual journaling with a focus on motherhood taught by yours truly with a supporting role from the lovely Phoebe Heath of Anthracite Creative Works (see y'all, we weren't done collaborating yet - I declared that on the day she resigned from our dynamic duo at PHS!) Here's a sneak peek of the show when I left: I am so happy to personally know many of the women in this show and call them "friends." There is a wonderful mix of professional full-time artists, artist-teachers, and creative pursuers. It is especially an honor to have this show on display right now at the museum next to another artist-mother who's children are continuing to share her legacy and an amazing landscape painting show featuring the Wyeth's work alongside many other American painters (including the Hudson River School). I'm humbled to share the same walls.
So, for tonight, I cannot stop smiling.
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After an intense year of waiting and percolating in my own head with visuals and ideas about motherhood, To Give Rise To finally was born! The show opened on Friday, May 7th at the Community Room on King-the gallery’s very last show before the building owner converts all of the commercial space to residential units. It was also Lancaster’s first official in-person First Friday since the pandemic started. (So the show was very special to quite a few people for a lot of reasons.) Even though it rained, the gallery was packed with a steady flow of family, friends, and guests checking out the work of these artist moms. I was overwhelmed by the positive response we received from the community! The most common response was: “this is so thoughtful and so deep-these women are really insightful and talking about stuff that really needs to be talked about more!” It was also interesting to see how each work was uniquely able to connect with different people. Each person I spoke with picked a different work that really touched them. I’m so proud and thankful for the vulnerability and bravery in the moms that participated this year - your work impacted so many people! Between Friday night’s reception and Saturday’s Art Walk (complete with live artist demo from Jenna Minor Kline), the show raised $285 for the Milagro House! That’s way more than the 2 shows we did over nearly 2.5 months 2 years ago! Woo-hoo! I’m not sure what the next step is for this crazy idea/group show thing that I’ve been doing. One thing that kept coming up that evening and beyond was running a “class” of sorts that visually and creatively allows women to explore their own journeys as mothers. Right now, I’m resting and allowing that idea to simmer until it’s fully realized.
Links to participating artist's websites: Phoebe R Heath, Jenna Minor Kline, Leslie Gates, & Corianne Thompson It's set. It's scheduled. There's a *facebook invite.* But this year it's different. We're going to attempt this again, but on a smaller scale. COVID canceled a lot, including my momentum-slowly-building motherhood themed juried art show: To Give Rise To. But a year later, after one of the most mundane, but also extremely taxing and imbalanced years of my life, I have a lot more to say and more visual stories to pull from than I could ever have anticipated. For me, I know that I found so much joy in watching the seasons change and exploring nature more with my son. It was truly a gift that as a teaching mom I may never get to experience again - and boy, did I document it! I'm so excited to share some of my new work that has come out of this intense season and I know that I'm not the only artist-mom who feels this way. This year's show is a curation of artist moms who participated in the first two iterations of this show: Phoebe Heath, Jenna Minor Kline, Leslie Gates, Corianne Thompson, Elizabeth Lee, Erika Kim Milenkovic, Andrea Klein, Marie Sellenrick, and Nichole Madonna.
So, mask up, come out, and join us in the conversation! I am please to announce that the Motherhood Journey show will be continuing this year in May as part of the Lancaster Art Walk! The Community Room on King will be hosting and the show will be juried by Baltimore artist and Milked Magazine founder, Lee Nowell-Wilson! Once again, the show will benefit the Milagro House and feature a *surprise* collaboration.
I am super stoked about the positive feedback I received from the shows last year and loved seeing moms empowered with a public voice. If you or someone you know is interested in submitting work to the show, the call for work can be found by clicking the image above. Thanks for all of the support and passing along the info! I curated an art show about motherhood. Doing this show was part of my healing process that I started in therapy (see this post here). Here's a little more info on the show: "As I’ve been navigating my new role as “mom,” I’ve been fascinated with how diverse the trek to motherhood can be. Some of us struggled and cried for years to be a mother. Some of us accidentally were thrown into motherhood and rose to the challenge. Some of us didn’t struggle or weren’t surprised, but had other unique hardships and joys along the way. I was inspired to curate this art show based upon some of our motherhood journeys, while also raising support for other mothers – “mom-ing” is hard enough, y’all! The works in this show revolve around, depict the essence of, or tell a specific moment in the life of these artist/mamas." I invited the artists to donate a percentage of their sales to the Milagro House and 100% of the proceeds from card sales went to the Milagro House as well. Guests to the art show were invited to peruse the Milagro House's wishlist and bring along an item to help another mother in her motherhood journey. I really wanted this show to support and encourage moms! The first show was hosted at Main Street Mount Joy in May featuring the work of 11 artist-mamas. We added 4 more mothers and moved the show to Folklore Coffee & Co. in Elizabethtown for the month of June. In the end, we raised $165 for the Milagro House, along with donations of wipes! I was so encouraged by how much the show grew in such a short period of time - from 16 works by 11 artists to 34 works by 15 artists in less than a month. It felt contagious and seeing the spark of creativity reignited in these artists was amazing. I'm so thankful to everyone who played a role in seeing this show's success and I can't wait to see what next year holds for us! Below are some images from both show locations. |
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