Mother's Fear Triptych

With this set of 3, I wanted to deal with motherhood & the mother-child theme in a slightly different way. I wanted to deal with the abstract concept of "fear" particularly the type of maternal fear that I never knew existed until I had Helena (my first little one). This fear can be so powerful that it immobilizes you if you don't contain it or let it exit in a way such as with this artwork. With these I want the text to stay visible so that it becomes /serves as "the reality" of our culture & the innocence of the kids become ghost like or faded. I'm using torn edge text from newspapers (the actual voice of our culture) & water based oil paints (safety a concern around those who eat paint! :)) Mass media (here newspapers because they provide an even painting surface) is important because it shapes, influences, and often perpetuates the fears that are in some ways natural. I've already talked to Josh Grenier about these & he had some excellent comments about composition & questions for me about what I wanted the work to "feel like". In the following sketches you can see I was having things very centralized for all three.... Josh suggested having the Liam & Helena pieces leaning more towards the center. He also suggested incorporating hands or arms cradling the three pieces.