The Art of Motherhood: Expressing the Unseen Realities 

Historically motherhood has been a significant theme in art and it remains a constant source of inspiration. My work often relates to me as a mother in some way, shape, or form. It’s a subject I am passionate about, not only because I am one but also because of all the stereotyping around it. For example, the idea that your mother is the only person who will always love you or that your mother moulds who you are. As with many things, there is a constant social bombardment of which not all are applicable or even true. 

Being a mother is not an easy role to take on, but it is, for me, the hardest and most rewarding job, I have ever had. Initially exploring sculpture and form, I sculpted animals - a polar bear and a whale - each with a baby created with the clay I took out of them when hollowing them out. 

I was exploring emotions, touch, and the overarching impacts of motherhood, which is a complex and multi-faceted experience that is not limited to the biological act of childbirth alone. It can encompass various stages of nurturing, caretaking, and protection. Motherhood is a continuing journey with numerous and relentless often daily challenges that demand a great deal of resilience, perseverance, and love. 

Ceramics, too, can be a metaphor for the experiences of motherhood. Clay is a material that is pliable yet strong and can be shaped into anything one desires. Much like children in the care of a mother, the process of creating ceramics requires patience, dedication, and attention to detail. 

Inspired by Johnson Tsang, Lucid Dreams series, and the emotions and expressions he captures with his work, I cast my own face, and made a mould enabling me to slip cast and iterate. Experimenting, I wrote all over one of the faces using words to describe the emotions, you feel and go through regularly as a mother.

Constantly working and looking at my face on the desk was a weird experience, making me consider many thoughts, including wanting to express a sense of being overwhelmed. Thus, creating a body of work, in which a face appears as if submerged. It was challenging to get the glaze effect right, as I had an image in my head of how it would look. Most days, we all, at some point, mothers or not, have a sense of being overwhelmed. A sense of drowning; keeping my head above water is a phrase I have used many times. 

Los Angeles-based artist Bari Ziperstein creates abstract ceramic sculptures that confront the reality of motherhood. Her works often feature breastfeeding mothers, nursing pillows, and bottles, as well as other materials and objects typically associated with raising a child. In her series titled Mother Milk, Ziperstein hand-built forms that resemble a plant-based structure with nipple-like protrusions. The sculptures explore the dual nature of motherhood, simultaneously nourishing and consuming, nurturing and demanding.  

My body of work is intended to bring to the forefront the realities of being a mother, acknowledging the emotional roller coaster that we experience and live daily, which often goes unseen or misunderstood. For me, motherhood represents a profound level of human connection, not only between myself and my children but also among all mothers, parents, and carers. 

Beautifully Brutal 

It’s wonderful but it’s hard 

Harder than you imagine 

It’s joyful but it’s tiring 

More tiring than you imagine 

It’s amazing but it’s painful 

More painful than you imagine 

It’s rewarding but it’s expensive 

More expensive than you imagine 

It’s a love like no other, but its brutal 

Motherhood is Beautifully brutal