Meditations on Maternity

I tear paper, and I think about the changes happening in my body, marveling over the beauty of it all. A tiny being is forming, and my body has expanded to make place for him--nourishing him and protecting him. Water, blood, spirit. Of dust a living soul (see Moses 6:59-60.) More stretch marks are on my belly, which I truly don’t mind so much as the linea nigra that bisects my lower abdomen. The fibers of the paper pull, stretch and break. This pregnancy isn’t like the last two: this time I will have a living, breathing baby. I layer the forms and let them rest on their small, wooden wombs.

These artworks were created in 2019 near the end of my second successful pregnancy. They are mixed media on wood, 3" by 3".