During the last 3 months of mom's life, I felt a closing in. I had been through so much in trying to navigate my world. The sculptures on this page reflect the chaos and feeling out of control I experienced during this time.
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Sandwich Generation - Earthenware Bookend, underglaze, books
As I continue my inquiry into aging as a woman, I have had many personal experiences that bore this piece. Part of aging that so many of us must face is the tug and pull of caring for both an aging parent and our own children. In the last year, I've put my mother in the hospital twice and then on hospice, where she currently exists. Her dementia has taken most if her mind. She is down to about 50 pounds and continues to lose weight. She is just skin and bones. As represented by the parent figure on the right. A removable blanket encourages the viewer to participate in her care. As I have begun the long goodbye, I simultaneously watch my son grow and begin to find his wings in this world, starting college while living at home, as so many young people do these days. I feel that gentle tug and pull of letting him grow up and begin his separation from me while still trying to guide him through the complexities of being an adult.
The figure on the left represents a student, and the figure on the right represents the parent. Both are intentionally androgynous so that they could be your son or daughter paired with your mother or father. The books represent my journey living between these generations that I love and value with all my heart. The pain is testimony of how much I love.
It's a very difficult right of passage, but one most will experience. Life happens, and it's not always easy, but it's through the dark wood that we find the Light and our own salvation.
Life's Waves - 3D printed Sculpture (TinkerCad), acrylic and beads
Life’s Waves is a continuation of my series, Aging As A Woman In Today’s Culture. The last few years have been a journey, beginning with taking over my mother’s care 3 summers ago after a traumatic incident. This piece came at a time when the tides literally changed for me. I lost my mother after the “long goodbye.” Over the last year, I have been thrown this way and that as I was told multiple times that my mom was dying. All this at the same time as I entered menopause and experienced all the turmoil that goes with hormone deficiency and replacement, completed grad school, had hand surgery, my daughter got engaged, my son started college, got his first job, and began driving. I was the true sandwich-generation!
This piece, entitled Life's Waves, tells this story in more ways than one. The process of trying something new, learning new skills in digital 3D design and printing that were not in my wheelhouse, the frustrations of feeling “not enough”, the pain of not being able to work at the pace and ability that I wanted due to the issues with my hand, all were a part of the first wave that hit me the summer of 2025, while starting and executing this piece. I found it interesting that it paralleled the experiences I have had with this stage of my life (feeling a little stuck between the Mother and the Queen stages).
These waves can knock us down as we resist them (what we resist persists!) Or if we let go and let the waves guide us, they can, despite their scariness and uncertainty, allow us the peace of acceptance and living in the moment. Life’s Waves is a response to the waves I have experienced and the beauty of acceptance, Zen, and the knowledge that I am part of the vast ocean that creates the waves.
I'm Sorry - Tape, Charcoal, Oil Pastel and Acyrlic Paint on Canvas
Its hard to be everything to everyone in my life. There were many times over the last year that I just couldn't be enough, do enough. It felt like my value was quantified in ways that felt exploitive. This piece was a reaction to feeling as though I was letting everyone down. Especially myself
The Artifacts of Aging - Mixed Media, Various Artifacts from Health Challenges of Mom and myself, Gel Medium, Acrylic on Canvas 3’x4’
Over the last 3 years of my mom's life, I began collecting artifacts from our experience with the healthcare system, which continually let us down. The gap in care for the aging and women, post-pregnancy, was perplexing and discouraging.
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