This project was started as a way to connect to my art practice during my first year after the birth of my son. The work I created was an effort to maintain a sense of myself - as an artist and an individual - in the face of the sudden upheaval to my schedule and identity as a new, fulltime stay at home caretaker and parent. No one can prepare you for the immediate changes of one’s identity until it happens. Having a year long project planned before the birth was one of the best gifts I ever gave myself. 

I originally used this project as a reprieve from childcare as I navigated carving out time for myself in fragments. Over time I saw it as an extension of my carework. The birth of my son and the passing of my grandfather have a deep connection to one another, it feels important to communicate values, qualities and stories of my grandfather who was a close and shaping parental figure for me. I have worked on a collection of pieces to gift to my son titled “The Inheritance”, this rug hooking is the centerpiece and is the most visual representation making the invisible labour visible.

In a world that neither supports artists or mothers, I have felt challenged to feel my work is important unless there is financial compensation. There are many different types of labour that can never be properly compensated in the same terms that other types of work can be. I could not put a fair price on this piece, this piece could not have been created with financial compensation in mind, it could only be made from love and drive. 

I also view this work through a longer tradition of mother as an archetype. This work is neither boundary pushing or original, it falls neatly into the category of who we imagine to be performing craftwork and what the subject matter should be about (i.e. family, values, storytelling). I find myself to have stepped into a stream of human tradition and aligned with an archetype within motherhood, which is a transformation that feels both mysterious and not mysterious at all. I once heard a woman explain that birth is both a miracle and very common, I feel that inspiration to make artwork for its own sake is a stream that runs parallel.

The piece measures 3 x 5 feet.