MIRRORING EXERCISES

As a mother, artist, and academic I have experimented with the intersectionality of these unique identities. Through academic research, and trial and error of practice, my identities collectively strengthen one another when performed together. Over a three-week period in the Summer of 2018 I created opportunities for my then five-year-old daughter and I to paint while facing one another with matching palettes. These situations were exercises for me to mirror her actions as an artist. My intentions were to challenge my inhibitions as an artist, while also building the practice of painting into my normal routine as a mother, artist, and academic. By reflecting her painterly actions, as a form of exercise, I instilled the habit of painting in myself while also gaining new confidence as an artist and a desire to make space to paint every day. The muscle memory from this practice directly transferred into my current works.