Fractured Portrayals of Motherhood - Artist Mothers at MAWA Exhibition

Adelle Rewerts is a Canadian artist with a love for vibrant colour and its healing powers. Primarily a minimalist graphic painter, she’s been working in alcohol inks since the birth of her daughter in 2016. She uses the inks to explore her feelings about motherhood and her changing identity. The colours are symbols and tokens revealing the truth and motivation behind the piece, releasing her from the burden of giving form to that which she is letting go. Instagram: @adellerewerts

Allison Moore is a visual artist/educator who lives in Treaty 1 territory in Winnipeg. Her art practice assumes a pseudo-scientific investigative process, wherein she works with natural materials in ways that respond to their unique and often unpredictable characteristics. She currently works as a full time art teacher.

Brenna George is known for paintings drawn from events in her life. She combines journalling and humorous insights with exuberant brushwork and anthropomorphism, which she describes as “where sentimental mushiness meets fretful thought.” Her work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada and the Surrey Art Gallery. She has mentored at MAWA, Video Pool and the Manitoba Arts Network, and teaches painting and drawing at the WAG, RWB, Forum Art Centre and Fort Garry Palette Club. www.brennageorge.com

I studied art at the University of Manitoba School of Art and taught art for 14 years in the Winnipeg School Division, which was helpful to my own practice in that I learned to spot problems and figure out how to fix them. I have always made art, but especially since retiring, I have been focussing on my own work. The MAWA Artist Mothers Group was like a lifeline to me, I felt supported and encouraged and we had shows so I had to make art! I work in polymer clay, in the round and low relief, and am building my acrylic painting skills. I am a passionate feminist.

Carolina Araneda has been an active participant in MAWA’s Artist Mothers’ Group since 2011. She works in mixed media and photography and her mothering (art) work deals with love, time, and resentment. Time because it is dramatically relative in parenting. Days drag by in an eternity, but years fly by in seconds. And in that paradox lives mothering. And how that time (and work) is parsed in parenting leads to resentment. And love because it is often burdened with being the antidote to the brutal reality of existence and love is the reason why parenting is . . . (you fill in the blank here).

Charlene Brown is a multimedia artist, mother of 2 teens and an avid gardener. Working primarily with clay, Charlene uses this tactical medium to depict her investigation into concepts of courage and vulnerability. Media such as dryer lint, wax and felt offer an emotional softness to the work. Her pieces speak to strength and fragility coexisting harmoniously within the body.
Botanical and aquatic creatures influence her work. These organic entities with their mysterious, exotic features and lack of human traits afford the freedom to focus on the spirit, energy and expressions being portrayed.
She teaches art classes at her studio - Clayhaus Studio and at Red River College. You can reach Charlene at [email protected]

Claudine found herself a parent at a pretty young age by today's standards or of a certain privilege. she accepted the responsibility to the best (and worst) of her ability, but she didn't really have a choice to be a mother - -at least not the first time. She chooses to make art, to be an artist, and it's in those complicated struggles between choice and no choice where fractures and fissures form the future. Mostly self taught. A sculpture, graphic artist and community arts organizer who has picked up the paint brush after a 15-year break. Struggling for the courage to find time, space and a voice while striving to support and respect the time, space and voices of others in both her mothering and her art.

My artistic discipline includes the practices of leaning into the unknown in trust and surrender. Allowing the work to guide me, a process both intuitive and cathartic, the work slowly unfolds making it self-known.

Danielle Fontaine Koslowsky is a Franco-Manitoban contemporary visual artist from Winnipeg. Danielle currently paints and sculpts in her studio at 618 ARTlington, and serves on the MHC Gallery board. Danielle is creating a beautiful and messy life while surrounded by four boys.

www.daniellefontainekoslowsky.com Instagram: @daniellefontainekoslowsky.art

Dawn Chaput is an artist, mother, and helper. Her work talks about the invisible and how it shapes us, showing up in our lives in ways that can be painful, beautiful, and at times imperceptible. Notions of culture, relationship, and desire become tangible in her artwork. Since receiving her BFA Dawn has worked mainly with clay developing these ideas and her ceramic voice. Alongside her personal art practice, she has served in community supporting the wellness of children and families. She is interested in making space for the exploration of experience both within her own work and as a guide to others in her art therapy practice.

Instagram: @dawnchaput

French Canadian painter Emilie Lemay grew up on the shores of Brome Lake, in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. She creates landscape paintings that illuminate atmospheric variations in the great outdoors. She finds inspiration under the extraordinary Manitoba sky since 2002.

Emilie is a member of Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art, La Maison des Artistes Visuels Francophones and The Cloud Appreciation Society. Her freelance work in cultural mediation reflects her commitment to support the diffusion and promotion of visual arts. Her artworks can be found in public and private collections throughout Canada.

www.emilielemay.com

Francine Martin is a self-taught Franco-Manitoban artist who works in hand-assembled, and mixed media collage; abstract painting; photography; and fiber arts. Humourous and sometimes dark, her work is both therapy and spiritual exploration. Francine's inspiration comes from themes such as motherhood, religion and spirituality, consumerism, and world events, all seen through a feminist lens.

francinemartinarts.ca

My art is rooted in process, documenting the daily ins and outs and the struggles. My artworks try to make sense of my emotional states, from a mess of art supplies, including watercolour, inks, collage and text. Often I find myself drawn to the abstract assemblage of colour but also work with repeating shapes and patterns.

I tend to work in series and enjoy making artist’s books and journals that document my journey as an artist, a poet and a mother.

Jodi Hildebrand produces brightly coloured and visually celebratory mixed media and acrylic paintings. Their subject matter, however, often conveys a deeper meaning. The titles of her works as well as visual cues from within the paintings give clues and commentary that can make reference to contemporary issues including feminism, consumerism, gender roles, health concerns, and sustainability. Hildebrand obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Manitoba in 2000. Her work maintains a sense of humour while tackling more serious issues.

Instagram: @jodi.hildebrand

Judith Stevens is an artist, mother, and art teacher who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her idyllic illusions of motherhood were fractured by the traumatic experiences of domestic violence and high conflict divorce that played out in custody battles over seventeen years. The purpose of Judith's work is to create a safe space for her and other women, who have had similar experiences; to share stories without being judged. She is hoping to dispel the myths and bring real understandings about motherhood and domestic violence to the rest of our society.

Kelly Radcliffe is a full time abstract artist. Kelly graduated from Queen’s University with a BAH in Art History and the Emily Carr University of Art + Design from the Design Essentials Management program. Kelly’s paintings are in private collections across Canada. She is an Active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists.
The process of abstract painting allows Kelly to explore thoughts, feelings, dreams and memories. Painting clears her mind and takes her to the magical place between our precious everyday life and the beautiful light place that one finds when you let go, follow your curiosity, where inspiration finds you, flow takes over and you are truly living in the moment. A unique piece of art is the magical gift that is left behind by that experience in time.

www.kellyradcliffe.com Instagram: @kellyradcliffeartist

Leigha Phelps is a mixed media artist and Mother of 2 outspoken teenage daughters. She supports new and expecting Women in their journey into Motherhood with humour and compassion. She DJ’s vinyl as Lady LP.

I have always been passionate about art. I’m inspired by the world we share and our collective experiences of it. My curiosity for new mediums and openness to creative adventure has rewarded me with a variety of artistic experience.

Motherhood brings with it a constantly evolving series of needs and requirements. I’ve tried to embrace the challenges becoming a mother has placed on my life as an artist. Striving to be open to the lessons and changes that have molded my vision, mediums, and expression.

Maria Epp, is an interdisciplinary artist, working in Winnipeg, MB, Treaty One Territory. Maria works in a variety of disciplines, including linocut printmaking, illustrative acrylics and watercolour as well as fiber weavings. Her work explores issues surrounding women’s empowerment, colonial trauma and land-based spirituality. As a mother, she is doing the work of deconstruction around the Western narratives of Motherhood. Living with chronic pain has pushed her towards finding inner strength as well as a search for interconnection.

www.mariaturtlewoman.weebly.com Instagram: @mariaturtlewoman Etsy: MariaTurtleWoman

I am a visual artist, visual arts educator and mom to furry and non-furry children.
I look to my students, my own children, and the animals in my life for inspiration and solace, especially when the demands of life threaten to take over. My visual arts practice explores the connection between animals and people and how we can see our own needs and behaviour reflected back at us through our experiences and relationships with them. I am also fascinated with lists and how they can tell the stories of the people who wrote them; their plans and hopes, their ideas, and/or a record of their experiences. My work is mixed media painting, often including found objects from my classroom, studio and home.

Melanie Dennis Unrau is a poet, PhD student, editor, and mother who lives in Winnipeg. A member of the Artist Mothers group at MAWA since 2010, Melanie has published one poetry collection, Happiness Threads: The Unborn Poems (The Muses’ Company, 2013). She is a former editor and current poetry editor of Geez magazine and a co-editor of The Goose: A Journal of Arts, Environment, and Culture in Canada. She is writing a dissertation on poetry written by Canadian oil workers. Her creative work combines poetry and stitch work and engages with themes of ecology, feminism, and motherhood.

Click here to view Pamela Desmet Franklin's artist statement

I'm a painter and mixed media artist and facilitator of the artist mothers group at MAWA. I typically like to use humour and colour in work that addresses themes of motherhood, feminism, gender relations and surrealism.

www.sandrafrancesbrown.com Instagram: @sandrafrancesbrown

I have always enjoyed making art beginning with my love of coloring as a child to taking up drawing and painting as a young adult. As a self-taught artist, I continue to explore ways to express myself in painting with oils, watercolors, and pastels.

In some of my work I use advances in the camera technology in the iPhone and iPad. The development of many apps for use with these mobile devices has created a new medium of art commonly known as “iPhoneography”. I continue to explore this medium and work towards interpreting some of the images in paintings.