“I want to live in a world humanized by maternal vision.” 

Catherine Ricketts,  The Mother Artist: Portraits of Ambition, Limitation, and Creativity

 

I seek an authentic experience of beauty amidst the distractions and messes of daily life. I focus on family scenes, room interiors and still life to create intimate views into one’s interior realm. The restorative, embodying aspects of blending tactile fiber materials are also central to my practice. I love the process of slow-looking and developing layered, nuanced surfaces as a form of active contemplation. But I also thrive on the speed and unpredictability of techniques like wet felting.

 

Since becoming a mother of three young children, these pursuits have found expression in my depictions of the tender rituals and pandemonium of parenthood. Through subjects like messy playpens, doodling children or wedding rings, my work hints at the intersection of ritual and play, monotony and delight in fundamental human relationships. 

 

Materials and Motherhood

My approach to fibers is informed by my background in oil painting, with a focus on wool felting and tapestry weaving. My materials include wool sourced from local sheep farms, and domestic detritus like dryer lint and clippings of my children’s hair. I also felt some pieces in my washing machine with our family's laundry.  This acknowledges the “invisible”, slow labor that accompanies my role as full-time caregiver and homemaker, and “make seen” the efforts of parents who are primary caregivers to young children. I want to treat mothering as a serious subject for art-making, and expand the maternal lens beyond its carefully curated forms found on social media. 

 

Inspirations
My influences range from the painters of the Nabis group and Mary Cassatt, to Kaylan Buteyn's "Artist/Mother" podcast and the growth of sustainable small batch wool. The life and work of artists Anni Albers, Käthe Kollwitz, and Ruth Asawa have been formative inspirations. My approach to art-making has also been shaped by the writings of Jacques Maritain, Thomas Merton and Flannery O'Connor on Catholic faith and art.

Studio Portraits

Courtesy of Robea Nordman