This body of work is about maternal exhaustion, both my own and the broader experience of mothers and parents during the pandemic. But parental exhaustion was around before the pandemic thanks in part to the total market failure that is affordable child care and the expectation of women and mothers to “do it all” in both their home and work life. The early days of the pandemic, when everything shut down, suddenly made parents realize how important teachers are to caring for their children. But that appreciation for parents hasn’t been reciprocated, as parents such as myself were forced to juggle full time work with full time caregiving, all the while stressing about protecting our kids from a novel, deadly virus. I was fortunate to have the option of teaching from home and am fortunate to have a partner, unlike many others who dropped out of the workforce to care for their children or who don’t have a partner to help them. I simply don’t know how they did it. I began to track my time teaching and working from home, time spent monitoring my daughter’s virtual kindergarten, time doing chores and attending to matters at home. I began collecting newspaper headlines that related to my own experience. The work in this show includes some of those headlines. For the first time in my life, I was so exhausted of using a computer after the spring 2021 semester that I returned to knitting as a medium that could occupy my hands. While creating this work, I imagined—although this isn’t so much of a stretch—a mother largely confined to her home, creating works of protest out of objects and materials around the house, such as bed sheets and blankets. She installs these works both inside and outside of the home as a call to action for change, help, flexibility, anything to make her feel seen. Then, she begins wearing these messages on her body. She translates her lived experiences into clothing—physical manifestations of the invisible weight and stress of her experience.
A Terrible Pandemic for Working MothersHand-knit dress, 2021
FACE TO FACEHand-knit coat, 2021
Home WorkInstallation view of works at McDaniel College
Home WorkInstallation view of works at McDaniel College
Are You Lost In It Too?Handknit coat with acrylic painting, 2021–2022.
Are You Lost In It Too?Hand-knit coat with painting, back view
Home Work: 100 Days of Fall 2020 and PANDEMIC DELIVERS A TRIPLE WHAMMY TO WORKING MOTHERSInstallation view at McDaniel College
PANDEMIC DELIVERS A TRIPLE WHAMMY TO WORKING MOTHERSHand-knit letterforms on fleece blanket
MOTHERS: THE USUAL BACKUP PLANDuplicate stitching on crocheted blanket
