Mommy Mayhem: 65 Layers Painted #5, 12" x 9," Acrylic on Canvas, 2021
This abstract expressionist painting has blue, green, red, white, orange and pink colours. My Mommy Mayhem Series stems from documenting my three kids and their perpetual messes through life drawing and painting. I combine 65 layers of this observational art in Photoshop to make digital collages that inform new paintings. The bright, vibrant colours come from in children’s debris (meaning their toys, crafts, books, clothing, and messes) and are layered over multiple painting sessions. The vague imagery that emerges echoes the mayhem of motherhood.
The paintings are based on my digital collages and blur the distinction between representation and abstraction. Gestural paint marks in acrylic and oil are built up on canvas through repetition.
This original painting ships directly from my art studio in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Watch a Short Video of this Small Orange, Blue and Green Abstract Painting Titled 65 Layers Painted #5
About my Mommy Mayhem Series
Motherhood is mayhem. My art is driven by an obsessive-compulsive need to document my children and their perpetually changing debris (meaning toys, books, clothing, and messes). Daily household and art routines, rituals, and schedules are my attempt to reign in the chaos of pandemic parenting. Numbers, habits, and repetition are crucial to family survival.
Like many diligent New York Studio School alumni, I compulsively draw and paint from life. My gestural paintings stem from documenting my three kids and their perpetual messes multiple lockdowns and quarantines. I combined 65 layers of this observational art in Photoshop to make 52 digital collages, which serve as the inspiration for gestural painting.
Why 65 and 52?
There are 65 hours in each weekend when my husband and I count down the 65 hours from Friday afternoon to Monday morning… until our children are back in school. Each of the 52 collages represents one agonizing weekend of the year. Mommy Mayhem expressionist paintings are loosely based on these collages.
The paintings blur the distinction between representation and abstraction in combining many moments of childhood. The bright, vibrant colours are pulled from children’s toys, crafts, books, clothing and are layered over multiple painting sessions. Acrylic and oil marks are built up on canvas or panel through repetition and movement.
Mommy Mayhem: 65 Layers Painted #5 painting incorporates mid-winter Northern light and stillness reflected on children’s chaos. My artwork subjects reflect parenting moments, and my painting technique is a reference to, and mocking of, art history movements such as the machismo of the Abstract Expressionist painters.