I have an upcoming art exhibition featuring new paintings that I made after and about having a baby, called Postpartum Paintings. I have had a difficult, but not uncommon, postpartum experience, which is still ongoing, and making artwork has been helping me to feel more myself even if it sometimes/often feels nearly impossible to do. If you’re curious about what I’ve been using postpartum, check out my postpartum survival kit.

The artwork in my show started with drawings that I made irregularly in a sketchbook I kept in my bedroom. I made them very quickly with a brush pen or whatever writing utensil I had nearby. I found keeping my materials to a minimum, just brush pen and small sketchbook, made it easier to draw. When I had too many art materials I felt very overwhelmed.

Later on, I started researching artwork about motherhood and continued to read or watch about all things new motherhood and baby, via novels, online forums, and tv shows. Below are a handful of artwork images I found during this discovery period. I am sharing because I don’t think there is enough chatter about artwork by and/or about motherhood or mothering.

I found these images after I made my own postpartum drawings and it is eerie to see how similar my drawings are to these works. The weird shapes your body makes, with a baby in it or after the baby comes out or when you are trying to accommodate for your baby in bed or nursing, is universal. We all shift ourselves to make room, and it is hard.

I think a lot of the artwork that we know of or is shown in galleries about the experience of mothering is abstract. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it has been exciting to see more artwork and rediscover artwork by artists who I didn’t know were mothers, sharing their experience in more explicit and/or figurative work. Like this artwork depicting pregnant and healing postpartum bodies by Josie Del Castillo. She shares an intimate and difficult time in a beautiful, technically skilled way that makes me emotional. Nothing can capture what it is like, but art can help us share the feelings a little bit.

It’s really hard to think about what you are experiencing at the time you are experiencing it. It’s even harder to make or think when you are dealing with physical and mental recovery, childcare, and just general life upkeep, like working, household maintenance, feeding yourself and your child, etc. So it makes sense that there isn’t as much artwork about motherhood by mothers! Or maybe there is a lot of work we just don’t see it that often. Earlier this year I was in an exhibition that was organized by mothers, called Time/Space, as part of the Taking Up Space initiative. Putting that show together has given me confidence to keep showing my work, even if it is very new and maybe not good enough yet for my own standards. I know my work will keep getting better and when I share my work I get to have really amazing conversations with other care takers and people who are just curious and this keeps me going.

Last night I made shapes with my body as our daughter nursed on and off, took a bottle with cow’s milk on and off, and slept on me and my husband on and off. She had a cough. None of us got very good sleep, but we all tried to rest together. Maybe I will draw it.