All That We Carry

20x15x8in
encaustic sculpture, plaster

This encaustic sculpture piece, “All That We Carry” was created as I contemplated all of the things that we–mothers– carry. Physically, emotionally, and psychologically, we carry bodies within us (whether we’ve ever birthed a child). We carry memories, we carry a plethora of information and we carry grief and joy. Mothers raise their children to be able to leave them one day and as our children become adults and do the very thing we have taught them to do, it can feel like we have an empty nest residing in us physically. It can also feel as thought the nest we carry within us is always home to those who have flown.

On a larger scale, this piece also communicates what it is to carry the knowledge that our bodies are so often not our own. Physically bearing a child is one thing, but having our bodies governed by people we’ve never even met. The weight of this knowledge, the very understanding that our rights have been taken from us to make decisions about our own healthcare, feel as if someone has carved from us the most basic part of our beings.