May 30th Artist Talk for Our Mothers Installation

At its core, my art is about Becoming. 

From the moment we are born to the day we leave this earth, we are in a perpetual state of responding to our experiences, thoughts, and emotions. We decide who we are in the minutest moments and the biggest decisions. Everyday, we are learning how to hold fast to what makes us better, and let go of what doesn’t.

My art has been in that exact same state of becoming since 2010.

Truthfully, I never intended to make “Art with a capital A.” Even though I come from some pretty healthy art stock. For example, my Aunt Ginger was one of the first women to graduate from the Memphis College of Art, my sister is a nationally renowned artist, and my parents were both deeply artful people. However, making something of this magnitude was never on my radar.

I started out as a crafty-minded woman. When I needed a more substantial paycheck in the 1990s, I heard that Tennessee was paying folks to get a degree in Art Education. So, I went back to the university of Memphis. I began teaching in 1999. Teaching changed me from the inside out. Investing art introduced me to artists who championed material culture, visual language, and personal transformation through conceptual introspection.

In 2010, while I was teaching image transfer processes, my mom gave me some vintage linens and lingerie from my late grandmother. I have always hated waste. Inspired by some exceptional students, I decided to test our transfer methods on these family heirlooms. This experimentation resulted in the work you see around you today.

Each piece on the clothesline features images from my history or that of someone who donated materials to me. I use various chemical and physical transfer methods—like acetone, Gesso, CitraSolv, Polyacrylic, and clear contact paper and Liquitex matte medium which always works the best.

My process mirrors how I think about us, human beings. We are multifaceted: physical, emotional, intellectual, relational. These pieces were saved from the obsolescence of dark drawers and given new public life. They are all of what we are: physicality that prompts emotions and thoughts in each of us and hopefully connects us one to another by honoring those who have cared for them. Most especially mothers of all kinds: grandmothers, sister-mothers, friend-mothers, all the mothers.

A note about the materiel: Just like the images I transfer onto these fabrics, we don’t always retain a full, perfect picture of our experiences. Sometimes a Xerox copy embeds perfectly, and sometimes only portions of the image take. The difference between us and the material is we get to choose how much of an experience, word, or emotion stays with us. We control the remainder.

Ultimately, all art reminds us of the foundational truths: we didn’t make ourselves, this world is broken and we are lost. And lastly, we know we are made for more than this. Even as children, when we look at the leaves falling or the clouds forming we know we are made for something beyond here; Something grander.

Remember: everything is a response which leads us into a state of Becoming.

Be mindful. 

Thank you so much for being here, and a special thank you to Sarah Lawler, Nysha Nelson, and Mendi Donnelly for making this formal showing possible!