I’m nearly six years into my ARIM (Artist Residency in Motherhood). It’s a self initiated framework created and shared by artist Lenka Clayton.
Before parenthood I had no idea how much I needed art to process the world around me. I had an inkling, but had never been pushed so far beyond my own limits. And just when I needed art the most it was the hardest thing in the world to make time for.
Enter the ARIM Manifesto,
“I will undergo this self imposed artist residency in order to fully experience and explore the fragmented focus, nap-length studio time, limited movement and resources and general upheaval that parenthood brings and allow it to shape the direction of my work, rather than try to work “despite it.”
This sentence changed everything for me.
I shifted gears from focusing primarily on creating within the containers of the Internet (vlogging & podcasting) to creating work with my hands to exhibit in galleries. Here is a timeline of the works I’ve created as part of my residency, which I feel is moving toward a close.
This body of work is called My Brain on Motherhood and many of the works came from a struggle to communicate my internal experience as an autistic mother. It is an exploration of parenthood, of neurodivergence, and of gendered expectations. I aim to complete this body of work within the next year and host my first solo art exhibit.
2021
Mother Interrupted is a data weaving. Each knot represents a time I stepped away from the weaving to tend my child. Textile felt like a fitting medium for early motherhood as it was easier to step away from and less time sensitive than paint or clay.
I documented this work with video, but struggled to make videos after this point because my child was too curious about the camera.
2022
My Brain on Motherhood was one of the first images I wanted to capture. It took many iterations to photograph and implement this flip box animation with a vintage corn popper toy. This work was exhibited as part of Anthropology of Motherhood Culture of Care at Three River Art’s Festival in Pittsburg.
Next came Maternal Mental Health a dimensional textile piece showing “I’m Fine” on one side and a mess of knots on the reverse. This was the first of my works to be exhibited and traveled more than I did in 2022!
Alongside these analogue art practices I also began a year long photo exchange in collaboration with Claire Venus. We spent a year sharing photos of our lives which I curated into 50 black and white diptychs.
These photographs were also part of a written piece about neurodivergent friendship published by Ought: Journal of Autistic Culture.
During our photo exchange I sometimes recorded videos and started a collection of repeating sensory moments titled Neurodivergent Spacetime.
2023
After publishing my first book Discover Your Creative Ecosystem I found that I needed to do intuitive work with my hands and created The Mental Load. A bricolage made from broken toys and the “detritus of motherhood.” Materials I never would have considered working with before my residency. This work was included in a tactile hands on exhibition for individuals with and without vision loss. And an art zine by Spilt Milk Gallery (Edinburg, Scotland.)
Unravel is an exploration in 360 VR. You can experience this immersive work through the YouTube app (it does not work in the browser) or click here to watch a time lapse of it’s creation.
Collecting materials was a big part of my residency. None were more important than the tags I cut out of my child’s clothing. I used these to create Meltdown which was my first work exhibited in NYC at All St. Gallery.
And a companion film, Meltdown Prevention, documenting the process. Both of these works were shown side by side at Synaptic (a show about neurodivergence in South Carolina) and Mothering (a show about motherhood in Wisconsin.)
Somewhere along the way I cleaned under the couch and created Domestic Archaology with the items I found (minus the dust & debris.)
2024
After crowdfunding Entwined: An Anthology of Creative Motherhood I was back in the studio with another intuitive work. Academic Battlescars represents the experience of an autistic child in school without needed supports. The substrate is a crazed chalkboard that spent several years in our garden for my child to draw on.
Mental Load II is a second work created with “broken toys and the detritis of motherhood”. It is roughly the size my child was at the time of it’s creation.
Alongside my art about motherhood I found I was exploring gender as well.
I was honored to contribute a square to the Euphoria Quilt Project. My crazy quilted block included textures and colors that brought sensory joy as well as playing with reversed textiles to use the “wrong” side. Here’s how it looked before it was added to the quilt.
The finished quilt is made of blocks sent in by over 165 people from 40 states and five countries that answer the question, “What does your gender expansive joy look like?”
2025
I have several works in various states of completion including (but not limited to):
You can browse all posts tagged ARIM here.
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