Gallery: Holding Absence
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Attachment and independence, oneness and separateness, self-estrangement and self-lessness are simultaneously held by mothers in varying degrees. They form the basis for an ongoing series of oil paintings on panel, including "Holding Absence". It is both an image of any mother and daughter, and at the same time a particular portrait of an immigrant with her daughter: my great-grandmother and grandmother. Upon becoming a mother, I almost immediately and inexplicably felt an acute connection to the painful losses and separations of my ancestors. As I have portrayed them in this painting, bodies are shifted and dislocated across the panels, but closeness is still revealed in the bond between mother and child. Other works in this series include closely cropped portraits of anonymous imigrant mothers. Medium: oil on wood panels. Dimensions: each panel is 12 x 12 inches.