My latest drawing is entitled Doctrine of the Wean, as if I am granting the process of being weaned it's own rules or steps to follow. Creating the piece began with continuing my exploration of motherhood, the womb, and taking ownership of these things as a woman. As I worked with ink, crayon, pastel, and graphite, the drawing started to have a life of its own and the process of separation and growth became evident in it.
As a babies are weaned from their mother's breast, they must go through sort of a discomforting stage. Growing accustomed to a bottle can be a great task, and when you think about it the bottle is necessary. Being able to eat mushed up peas and tiny slices of pears requires that in-between stage of bottle feeding. As the idea of weaning filled my thoughts, I began to apply the concept to many life situations. For those of us who seek growth, do we not remove ourself from natural comforts? Do we not replace those natural comforts with artificial ones?
Maybe this would be best explained in an example:
Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl (and vice versa). Boy is in the military. Boy gets deported. Girl must be weaned from boy. She wears his clothes (artificial comfort). She wears his dog-tags (artificial comfort). She walks his dog (artificial comfort).
Each of these "artificial comforts" she clings to lend to relieving her grief of being pushed away from the natural (or original comfort).
My interests still lie in studies of the womb, which this concept can be easily applied to as well and is very closely related to. We are separated from the warmth of existing inside our mothers but that separation is required for growth. This in mind, I aimed to keep themes of reproduction in mind (primarily female). I used reds to pop and mimic menstrual blood. I used the image of fruit to push ideas of sexuality and fertility, as well as push the role of artificiality. I used cell growth imagery referenced directly from a blastocyst. I also used pairs or ideas of things occurring in twos, since it is so common in the body and reproductive organs.
Overall i feel that Doctrine of the Wean is the first step toward something I can really maintain an interest in and possibly please myself with. I view this piece and something I can really take ownership of. I also feel it is something that other women can get a sense of ownership from, as well as a sense of being comfortable with their wombs.
I guess the photo is not working. Will add photo soon...sorry!
