MOTHERHOOD AS A TIMELINE
A collaborative project curated by Cindy Cavanagh, working together with photographers worldwide. It's a celebration of motherhood from early pregnancy to great grandmother. It's not a definitive collection; it's a stepping stone to a new narrative around motherhood. Every summer, we see scarcity and fear that there are only 18 summers with our children. As they grow and evolve, so does our mothering. It doesn't end on that 18th summer, so let's not fear it. Let's see the change as an abundance and expansion of our hearts. New people come into our children's lives like friends, boyfriends/girlfriends, partners, spouses, and children, and with each new love in their life, our heart grows too. There's room in our mothering for the changes that come as we get older. This series is a timeline to show motherhood through its stages…and there are many, many, more.
Thank you to the 32 artists from 12 countries who shared their art, words, and version of motherhood. This project is a thread connecting our stories from all over the world, one that I hope will weave and grow into a more extensive collection.
Artist: Tania Traversini
Location: Luxembourg
Motherhood is a changing body that is never the same.
Artist: Cindy Cavanagh
Location: Sydney, Australia
Artist: Tianna Williams
Location: United Kingdom
Motherhood is instantly feeling your world turn upside down.
Artist: Jessica Miles
Location: United States of America
Artist: Beth Lindsay
Location: Sydney, Australia
Motherhood is having your baby arrive earlier than expected and taking them home for the first time.
Artist: Laura Pittman
Location: Fiji
Motherhood is an overwhelming pride. How did I make two amazing beings?
Artist: Anh Ma
Location: Sydney, Australia
“Motherhood is a journey. It has many ups and as many downs, but it is the most wonderful, emotional and fulfilling journey you can ever embark on.”
Artist: Lidiya Kalichuk
Location: Dubai
Motherhood is draining and fulfilling; opposite truths at the same time.
Artist: Sarah Allison
Location: Canada
Motherhood is the reason you wake up in the morning; to feed the baby, to make breakfast for the child; to answer their questions about capybaras and to soothe them after a night of terrors. Motherhood is eating peanut butter toast you made because they wanted oatmeal instead, your oatmeal, and preparing lunches and dinners in your head for the rest of the week.
Motherhood is crying with them, and laughing with them, often at the same times.
Motherhood is spring, summer, winter and autumn, all in one day. It is hurricanes and tornadoes, tsunamis and heat waves all rolled into one, per child.
Motherhood is Dorothy, leading them the way down the yellow brick road, hoping they are able to find Courage, Brain and Heart, and hoping that you yourself are able to find your way home.
Motherhood is a conscious commitment to raising your children, knowing that they will be extensions of yourself.
Motherhood is a transitional and rebirth of one’s self. It is an exhausting, and scary, and sometimes, a very lonely path.
And more often than you care to notice, motherhood is the only reason you wake up in the morning.
Artist: Lisha Zulkepli
Location: Malaysia
Motherhood is carrying many roles; most of which we never expected to carry.
Artist: Ninja Klein Koerkamp
Location: Netherlands
Artist: Serena Jones
Location: Sydney, Australia
Motherhood is rewriting the narrative. For her. For me. For us.
Artist: LeAnna Azzolini
Location: United States of America
Motherhood is a tussle as we encourage their independence while holding onto memories of the child or the person (myself included) that was.
Artist: Diana Hagues
Location: United Kingdom
Motherhood is savoring the sweetness of small moments that fill our hearts with joy. The touch of our baby's soft skin against our own. The fullness we feel from a warm embrace from our child. A little hand tucked trustingly in our own. Hair windswept and wild in a spring breeze. It's the realization that the little every day, seemingly mundane moments of motherhood are anything but ordinary. They are extraordinary.
Artist: Debbie Camba
Location: United States of America
Motherhood is the constant seeking of balance. The need to find balance in honoring the difficult feelings I have and gratitude for being able to spend time with them. Balance in caring for myself in every way that I need and making them feel seen as well. Perspective has been my greatest gift but I had to make mistakes along the way in order to get perspective so I have to surrender my desire for perfection and trust the process of my own personal growth and my growth as a mother.
Artist: Wendi Matt
Location: United States of America
Motherhood is an invisible thread that weaves through our stories
Artist: Kirsty Larmour
Location: India
Motherhood is messy, heartbreaking, and beautiful.
Artist: Adina Davidson
Location: United States of America
Motherhood is an awakening. For some it is euphoric, and for some it is maladaptive. Motherhood is an awakening to feelings, emotions and physical and mental experiences that before that were dormant. Your senses become heightened, in my case I had an explosion in my sensory experiences.
Artist: Sonja Smith
Location: Ireland
Artist: Carolina Morgan
Location: Sydney, Australia
Motherhood is watching them grow taller than you.
Artist: Monica Gonzalez Alcocer
Location: Mexico City
Motherhood is an invitation to raise our children with love and care.
Artist: Yeicell Brindis
Location: United States of America
Motherhood is a fountain of knowledge and wisdom, flowing to nourish the next generation.
Artist: Iko-Ojo Mercy Haruna
Location: United Kingdom
Motherhood is waiting. Waiting to get pregnant. Waiting to go into labour. Waiting for first steps and first teeth and first days of school. There's a lot of waiting with teenagers. Waiting at netball training and performing arts classes. Waiting for them to be ready to open up about what's bothering them. Waiting for them to load the bloody dishwasher!
Artist: Emma Davis
Location: Sydney, Australia
As a mother the utmost privilege is to have a collective of close-knit women supporting, loving, and mothering you and your child.
Artist: Melinda Edwards
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Motherhood is a beautiful on going journey now as a Grandmother ( Nonnie ) to these three beautiful little people .here’s a faint scent of déjà vu from when you raised your own children, the memories come rushing past me but this place feels different. I get to sprinkle stardust over their little lives and my heart is so full when l hear their little voices call out “Nonnie “ . I can’t imagine my life without them in it.
Artist: Michelle McQuinn
Location: Melbourne, Australia
