Drawing Restraints 

This exhibition began with appropriating other artists’ work through the point of view of parenthood. I specifically was interested in Matthew Barney’s “Drawing Restraints” and the idea of art making as parallel to athletic practice. The artworld was interested in the obstacles and physical training he put himself through when compared to athletic practice but what about other forms of restraint? What about the “obstacles” that are children, being a mother, or issues having to do with an aging woman.

I decided to expand on my initial performance about the obstacles of being a mother and an artist, to other issues having to do with mothering and specifically a mother’s identity post baby.  This post baby identity for me manifested as a midlife crisis of the best kind.

Throughout this exhibition you will see references to this second puberty mixed with that of mothering, tending to a home, and a second sexual awakening. All of these feelings manifested in my relationship to the objects surrounding me. This took me on a quest to find an identity not related to others, but grounded in my own autonomy as a matron. I am playing with many ideas of restraints and finding relationships with objects beyond mothering from colorful BDSM rope, to extension cords, to home fitness equipment, to heels, and to girdles. All of these self imposed restraints challenged me to figure out a way to talk about this new experience in my artwork, and overcoming those feelings of not belonging or even being ridiculed as I become a middle aged mother. All of that confusion and chaos of my own insecurities are restraining me from really feeling comfortable in my artistic practice.

Special thanks to Julia Lomber, this exhibition could not have happened without you.

Also, Adrian Martinez, you are the only person who could go on this journey with me, 

Thank you.