ARTWORK > NURSING DRAWINGS

Nursing Drawings is a project I started about two weeks after the birth of my first child, in winter 2014. Each graphite drawing was made from direct observation in the usually 10-30 minutes while I nursed him (and later, his brother). Begun on a whim, with no plan or expectations, the drawings quickly became a way for me, as an artist, to reclaim a fragment of the time lost and consumed by early motherhood. This simple act quelled both my fear of abandoning artmaking and my impulse to document each day of my new baby's life.

As a collection, the nearly 200 drawings document our daily life, our bodily transformations, and my evolving visual language. Though this drawing-based work has been seen as a departure, the threads present in all my work consistently lead toward a reflection on the essential experiences of life: birth, sex, rest, sickness and death and the ways we align or distance ourselves with the idea of "Nature".

Collaboration with Matthew Whitehead, Jason Kofke, Jonathan Frey.
2015
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
Nursing Drawings & Wallpaper
framed graphite drawings on custom wallpaper
each 5.5" x 8.5"
2014
03-16-14
2014
03-18-14
2014
03-21-14
2014
03-25-14
2014
1-31-15
2015
02-15-15
2015
03-07-15
2015
04-04-14
2014
04-14
2014
4-4-14
2014
4-18-14
2014
4-25-14
2014
5-2-14
2014
7-21-14
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
2014
2014
2014
2014
2014
8-18-14
2014
8-28-14
2014
9-21-14
2014
10-6-14
2014
Rayburn Nursing 11-21-14
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
Rayburn Nursing 12-30-14
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2014
Rayburn Nursing 1-8-15
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2015
Rayburn Nursing 1-10-15
graphite on paper
5.5" x 8.5"
2015
Nursing Drawings, studio view
graphite on paper
each 5.5" x 8.5"
2014
Laboring Wallpaper
digital design
dimensions variable
2014
Studio view
Triangle Arts, Brooklyn NY
2014
Subsume, cover detail
scan of printed book cover
7" x 9"
2017

First exhibited in summer 2014 at my open studio at Triangle Arts in Brooklyn, NY, these drawings, individually and in various groups, have been shown in a wide range of group exhibitions such as Habitat at The Wooly in Gainesville, FL and Place & Identity at Susquehanna University. In spring 2015, I presented this body of work at the Motherhood & Creative Practice Conference in London, UK and in Winter 2018, Subsume, an artist's book consisting of the first generation of these drawings was published by Puppy American Press in NYC.