Parenting is universal

While this month may not exactly be the one in which we celebrate those that gave us life, the new exhibit showing this month at Marylhurst University gives us reason to pause and reflect on mothers, fathers and the cycle of life.

Through the use of multi-media installations, poetry and the collaborated work of seven artists, the Marylhurst Art Gym has effectively spotlighted the givers and the shapers of our lives in an exhibition titled Motherlode. By examining the roles that mothers play, we gain insight into the process of motherhood, the dynamic relationship between parents and their children and the inevitable change from child to parent.

“For artists, motherhood…presents an opportunity to comment on an experience that is nearly universal—parenting,” writes Art Gym curator Terri Hopkins. Everyone has a parent and even if a relationship between child and parent is strained or non-existent, the actuality of being birthed by someone is still universal.

Hopkins writes on the origins of the topic, saying that it “began with a search for art that explored several issues, including the impact of responsibility for another life, the re-encounter with childhood and responses to making art with new restraints on one’s time and energy.”

The contributing artists include: Julianna Bright, Nan Curtis, Fernanda D’Agostino, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Linda Hutchins, Shelley Jordan and Dianne Kornberg, with poetry by Elisabeth Frost. Of all the work on display, nothing is even slightly similar in presentation. With a tasteful mix of both art and craft, the show provides a little something for everybody: drawings, painting, film or even papier-mâché.

Walk into a tiny enclave lit only by the pulse of a dying bulb and you enter the world you once knew as a child or now know as a parent. Jordan’s “Morning Coffee” exhibit is a set breakfast table garnished with the morning paper, a bowl of oats, O.J. and of course the morning coffee. A three-minute video clip of ghost-like images plays inside the coffee mug, a blend made perfectly for reflecting the projections streaming from above. As if to say “this is your life flashing before your eyes,” images appear and disappear before the viewer has the chance to truly take it all in.

The staple piece in the collection is by D’Agostino who fixed an image of a fetus to the front of a streaming mini television. Staring at the TV, we reflect on the trials of rearing a child in the modern age. A time struck by violence and riddled with challenges, we ponder the effects this background noise has on the psyche.

Repeated words typed on scrolls to tepees made with blankets encourage us to sympathize with our caretakers. Tattoo-worthy fairy tale paintings to shockingly profound portrait pieces remind us of the role that we have played, and continue to play, in the lives of our family.

An issue rarely addressed by the younger generations, Motherlode fills the gaps and spans the years to remind us of the guidance that brought us to where we are and the future generations that we are yet to create.