Landscape of Her

I finally found the time to sit down and create that piece.... In this new oil finger painting, a monumental mother holds her newborn close while her body rises out of the landscape like a mountain. She is not simply standing in the world. She becomes the world. Her form turns into shelter, horizon, weather, and ground. The baby rests upon her as we all once rested upon our own mothers, carried by a body that became our first home, our first understanding of safety. The mountain her body creates is meant to feel like the world the child now lives upon. Motherhood, in this sense, is not just tenderness. It is geology. It is country. It is the making of a whole terrain from love, exhaustion, instinct, and awe. This painting is dedicated to my little girl, my mother, my grandmother, and all the mamas out there. It is impossible to capture the scale of motherhood, but I have tried to show how it feels to become a landscape for another being.