M.A.M.A. Issue n.24: Elisabeth Schön and Judy Swann
The ProCreate Project, the Museum of Motherhood and the Mom Egg Review are pleased to announce the 24th edition of this scholarly discourse intersects with the artistic to explore the wonder and the challenges of motherhood. Using words and art to connect new pathways between the academic, the para-academic, the digital, and the real, as well as the everyday: wherever you live, work, and play, the Art of Motherhood is made manifest. #JoinMAMA
October, 2017 Art by Elisabeth Schön Words by Judy Swann
Art by Elisabeth Schön
The postpartum period is a surreal time and space that can hurt or heal a woman but either way she’ll never forget it with her in body in flux and a human being that just came through her and is utterly dependent on her for survival. Their meeting binds them as she’s confronted with her biology and its vulnerability.
ZMOTHERINE
Words by Judy Swann
Fool
I threw rose petals on the ground
and her pink slippers slid on that silky surface,
the Muse, when she came just now.
Her small hooves have worn every fabric, every skin,
every color, my kids
try them on when she slips them off.
Her little goat horns wobbled and she scolded,
“Why am I not connecting? Why so many
dreams and so little in my basket, Fool?”
By ‘Fool’ she meant ‘Innocent Child.’
She said, and I could see her beard,
she said, “Tell me that you love me.”
“I am,” I said, “not sleeping alone.”
She said, “Tell me that you love me.”
I said she was always on my mind, I called
As often as I could. She said,
“Tell me that you love me.” I said “I’ve spent twenty years,
two husbands, and all my thrift on those roses.”
Judy Swann is a poet, essayist, translator, mom, blogger, and bicycle commuter, whose work has been published in many venues both in print and online, including the Mom Egg Review. Her son is (always) on his way home. Her book, We Are All Well: The Letters of Nora Hall has given her great joy. She loves. She lives in Ithaca, NY.
Mother Art Prize Winner and Left Overs Selected Artists
The first Procreate Project ‘Mother Art’ Prize is a new prize in the contemporary art world, available to win for artists who are mothers, to support and provide them with a platform to showcase and evaluate their work.
Artists participating in the Mother Art Prize competition responded to the theme ‘Left Overs’: What is left of our sanity, bodies, sexuality, time and identities when mothering? What remains unused or unconsumed? How do left overs feed creativity?
The Mother Art Prize 2017 winner is the ‘The Divide’ by Mary Martins.
The Divide is an Animated Documentary that looks at one of the many ways in which love can exist in challenging circumstances. These are a higher level of intellectual abstraction that combine non-representational images with narrative. In the wider scope, unraveling interesting ways to relate these to current non-salient social issues, political issues and our human rights. The first film is about the separation of both parents resulting in single motherhood.
As a non-conformist Animator, I am currently exploring transcultural abstract art in its various manifestations in order to achieve creative harmony. I create movement and visuals in non-literal wilderness, challenging the negative connotations that often conceals the beauty behind truth, meaning and reality. I apply the medium of Animation to capture the zeitgeist of our modern times, concurrently addressing several existentialist ideals.
The films plays around a series of paintings produced by a baby at nursery during the breakdown of the relationship between his Mother and Father. The film rejoices the child’s creativity which leads to the mother’s acceptance of a new life. This causes her to experience moments of happiness and profound beauty.
“The non-representational becomes the non-judgmental and objective projection of life. This will enable me to deconstruct stereotypes, giving rise to the empowerment of the under-represented.”
Shot on B&W 16mm Film
Colour Digital
Oil Paints on Glass
Spray Paint and Pastel
Sand on glass
Animated glass paint on 16mm film
The Award Winner received:
- 1 Month residency at the next Mother House’s opening 2018 (this covers Childcare and Art Studio for 1 artist and 1 child) wwww.motherhousestudios.com
- £200 cash prize
- Up to 5 pieces of work exhibited at the Left Overs Show, within Filia Conference 2017
- 1 year online Membership with Procreate Project
- 1 free mentoring session with Sylvie Gormezano, Director at Picture this productions and Chair of the Association of Women Art Dealers (AWAD)
- 1 free ticket to Oxytocin: Mothering the World 2018 (dates TBC)
Mary Martins is a London based documentary Animator and Ethnologist. Her ideas are often of a philosophical nature as it enables her to work with a great degree of autonomy. She will be progressing onto an MA at the Royal College of Art where she endeavours to produce a series of philosophical essay films ‘a treatise’ as an exploration of transcultural art in its various manifestations in order to make sense of how we inhabit the world beyond sense-perception and appearance. With a strong interest in aesthetics she hopes to link her research around phenomenology with animism, theosophy, humanism and social constructions.
In an attempt to push boundaries within her work, she juxtaposes various traditional film making techniques retaining the rich elements of our past.
University of East London
BA Animation & Moving Image
University of the Arts London, LCC
Foundation in Animation
University of Birmingham
BA Philosophy
Left Overs: Open call for entries and Mother Art Prize
OPEN CALL FOR VISUAL ARTISTS AND LIVE ART INTERVENTIONS – MOTHER ART PRIZE 2017 –EXTENDED DEADLINE TO MIDNIGHT SEPTEMBER 24
Procreate Project is inviting visual artists and live art performers to respond to the theme of ´Left Overs’ – What is left of our sanity, bodies, sexuality, time and identities when mothering? What remains unused or unconsumed? How do left overs feed creativity?
For the occasion , Procreate Project is happy to announce the first Procreate Project ‘Mother Art’ Prize 2017 (Visual Art). This new prize is available to win for artists who are mothers, to support mother-artists and provide them with a platform to showcase their work. The prize is aimed at artists working in one or more of the following media: drawing, printing, painting, photography, digital art, sculpture installation and video.
The Award Winner will receive:
- 1 Month residency at the next Mother House’s opening 2018 (this covers Childcare and Art Studio for 1 artist and 1 child) wwww.motherhousestudios.com
- £200 cash prize
- Up to 5 pieces of work exhibited at the Left Overs Show, within Filia Conference 2017
- 1 year online Membership with Procreate Project (See weblink for Membership benefits: https://www.procreateproject.com/contact-2/)
- 1 free mentoring session (1to 1 or Skype) with Sylvie Gormezano, Director at Picture this productions and Chair of the Association of Women Art Dealers (AWAD)
- 1 free ticket to Oxytocin: Mothering the World 2018 (dates TBC)
*All entrants will be promoted on our social media pages
*Shortlisted Artists will be exhibited in London as part of ‘Left Overs’ show and will be awarded with 1 year PCP online membership
*1 Winners receive cash prizes, residencies opportunities, mentoring and exhibitions in London
The jury panel is composed by Sue Ecclestone (Ecclestone Art Agency), Jess De Zilva (Visual Artist), Sylvie Gormezano (AWAD – Picture This Productions), Nora Weller (ARTUM on Art Cultural Heritage), Rose Gibbs (Visual Artist and Activist) and Sue Spaull (Art Academy).
Open for entries now, the extended deadline is Sunday 24 of September at midnight. The entry fee is £10 for up to 3 works. They should be framed unless the work lends itself to being frameless. (PayPal info@procreateproject.com) This fee does not apply to performances proposal.
Fees will not be refunded if applicants are not chosen for the finalist exhibition, however a selection of 25 applications will be featured in our online catalogue for the prize.
Entry Procedure for Visual Art:
Please label all JPEG Image files as follows: Artwork Title_First & Last Name_Media_Dimensions
Submit completed signed T&C and entry form, entry fee payment, and artwork images only by email to events@procreateproject.com. High-resolution JPEG images only; files must not exceed 1.5MB.
Entry fees are non-refundable. Submission of the works does not guarantee being selected for the exhibition. Entry fee doesn’t apply to entries for live art and performances contributions.
Conditions: Any artists who are mothers with children of any age, mothers-to-be and grandmothers.
Acceptable media:
Visual Art (drawing, printing, painting, photography, digital art, sculpture installation and video), live art and short performances which respond to ´Left Overs’.
“Please note we cannot guarantee that
videos will be included in the Left Overs exhibition at FiLiA due to the
practicalities of the room that we are curating.”
Presentation:
Visual art: All artworks are first juried by digital photograph. All media and dimensions are acceptable for submission. One photo per 2-D artwork. May submit up to three photos for 3-D work.
Sales of Visual Art:
Please consider that the price submitted is the retail price. Procreate Project CIC retains 40% of the retail price on all works sold of which 10% will be donated to FILIA.
Entry procedure for Live art and short performances: One page PDF proposal with description of performances with photos and videos weblinks.
Left Overs is curated by: Artist and producer Sarah Dufayard and Art Historian and curator Sue Ecclestone
Follow these links for more information:
