Ceramics

Sharon Fitzgerald

The Mammies

As an artist and mother, I use my own experiences as a parent to express the relationship between mother and child. I don’t feel I conform to the traditional image of a mother as depicted historically in visual art, but my own adventure as a mother lends itself to creating new maternal identifiers and perhaps creating contemporary universal mothering themes.

Giving my children the freedom to express their individuality brings diversity to our family and it’s this diversity that imprints itself on my work. I am celebrating the ‘in between years’ of parenting, after the cute and more often represented baby stage has passed. Relationships between mother and child shift and change in sync with different needs and personalities. The darker aesthetics of my own Gothic personality as reflected in my personal spaces are clashed with the colour and expression of my children as they pass through. This allows me to identify and exhibit many aspects of the personality of motherhood, the proud moments, the quiet moments, and the hidden moments seldom revealed.

The Virgin Mary is synonymous with the perfect mother. I reconsider this mother icon by using objects that inhabit my personal space, contrasted with the vibrant personalities of my children. This work endeavours to discover and invent fresh representations of mothering, the good and not so good.

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