Image of the Week: Mother & Child (versions 1&2)
© Durga Yael Bernhard
Last week I mentioned spirals as a theme in my art. Especially in my formative years, it was a recurring symbol, inspired by the many forms it takes in folk art all over the world. From primitive cave paintings to sophisticated weavings, from the Maori of New Zealand to the ancient Celts, spirals of all sorts abound on every continent.
This linoleum black print was inspired by the art of the Mimbre people who lived in the American southwest until approximately 1150CE. These ancient pueblo-dwellers painted mostly on bowls, used not so much for cooking but as burial objects, placed over the head of the deceased and believed to act as the sky dome of the spiritual world. You can see some examples here. I fell in love with these beautiful, inventive circular designs, and strove to absorb them into my cells as an artist.
Then along came my first child, born a few weeks after this image was created. It was the perfect intersection of subject and form – an opportunity to reinvent the circles and spirals I loved in an image of the total envelopment of a mother's embrace. Such close nurturing is the birthright of every baby – in my case, something to give my children but never experienced myself, as I was born prematurely into an incubator.
The tiny infant shown here is in its natural place, held at the center of a spiral as his mother turns inward with total devotion and love – and from this place, the baby begins to spiral outward. The four corners of the picture each contain a double spiral – that is, two strands that meet at the center, representing the meeting of mother and father in conceiving the child's life.
This is my wish for every baby! To be born of a loving union and held securely at the center of an all-encompassing maternal embrace.
A second linoleum block print of this concept emerged the following year. Once again, mother and child are tightly framed by a geometric pattern, but this time within a square. Here, as in real life, I was striving to bring my love of African art and culture together with the theme of mothering.
A whole series of mother and child images grew out of my childbearing years – over fifty drawings, paintings, and handmade prints – many of which were created with a sleeping baby on my back.
Mother & Child – versions 1 and 2 – were created as small editions of handmade linoleum block prints. I still have a few left for sale, two of which are part of a collection of my older works on view at Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, NY. My painting featured last week, Moon Temple, is also there.
These images are also available as greeting cards. You can order by filling in the title of the image here.
Finally, one more spiral: painted on my own pregnant belly shortly before the birth of my third child:
A good week to all!
D Yael Bernhard