Date of Submission

Spring 2022

Academic Program

Studio Arts

Project Advisor 1

Myra Young Armstead

Project Advisor 2

Dave McKenzie

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Motherhood in the words of Aunt Brenda.

See, we look at our parents first as these godlike figures like they're going to figure it out, not realizing that they were children. They were people. They had dreams and aspirations and all that. And when you strip that away, the title of mother– parent– this woman…. Who is that person?

Well, they're a person. They bleed just like you. They had dreams and thoughts and all that, just like you.

You know, I challenge everybody, you know, take your mother or father off of that godlike pedestal because you'll find that they're a person just like you. With thoughts and dreams and all of that. That's why I know her better now. You know. And when you see that your dream is deferred or it's just not going to come to fruition, how… that must feel? How stripped you must feel? How disappointing and depressing that must be. You know…

But my mother went from being on social service to being a dietary aide up at Teresian House and learning how to read. People may think, you know, that's nothing, but that was everything to her, for her to be able to confess that to me– that she didn’t know how to read. Even though I've known about it for years.

Who am I without my mother? Who is my mother absent from me?

Open Access Agreement

Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Download

This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.

Share

COinS