Monday, July 14, 2008

1984



















A couple of paintings on the topic of the struggle to create art while being a young mother. I went back to school and took a painting class when I was thirty, after the birth of my fifth child. Here are two self-portraits from that semester. I felt like a split person back in those days...

3 comments:

artslice said...

Love the iron one! The 2nd one... wow, very Bosch-like - powerful. How did the class respond??

martha miller said...

Hi Brenda

The class loved these. I had a wonderful painting professor who really encouraged me. I had many drawings from when I started therapy after the birth of my 4th child. (I had a very difficult post partum. I had not been making any art for several years and upon learning this my therapist said to me:
"Run - don't walk - to the nearest art supply store, buy some paper and start drawing."
The second piece here comes directly from those drawings.

Dean Grey said...

Martha!

These are very powerful and filled with torment!

I love the one with the broom handle.

-Dean