1
300
2
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https://artistparentindex.com/files/original/85da3d5caa0395e78e0dc1585b14cde5.jpg
114eabbc295bbdeb9549e36a50513847
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Artist Parent Index
Person
An individual.
Website
The Artist's website
<a href="http://www.sherfickart.me">www.sherfickart.me</a>
Topic
motherhood
medication
post-partum depression
anti-depressants
family
family history
medical care
medicine
Medium
mixed media installation
textile mixed media
textile
Artist Statement
<br /><span>As an artist, I never identified myself with my family. My having a family was just a part of my biology, driving relations and the cause of both joy and sorrow. All of these identifiers caused ambiguity within me. Constriction, restraint, joy with sorrow, and invisibility were the products of my familial experiences. Unfortunately, this separatist attitude developed into a denial of my complete person. I AM a woman, a daughter, a granddaughter, an aunt, a sister, a wife, and a mother. I carry the practices of many generations- messages of motherhood and womanhood in my very veins and soul. As I began an archeological dig into my familial ties, I re- discovered and acknowledged - for the first time - my family history and existence. My works now include the very ambiguity I feel over this issue. The use of domestic and childhood materials and constructions of fabric and vintage apparel reveal the paradox of family history – myths, storytelling, truth, lies, misunderstandings, and, above all, the difficulty of unconditionally loving one another. By questioning what family ties mean to me, I offer a record of one artist’s journey into acceptance and the embrace of the familial spirit I have denied for years. My work now reflects the depolarization of my familial/individual self.<br /><br /></span>My art intends to question the roles of women and women artists. My use of domestic and childhood materials and constructions of fabric and prescription bottles reveal the paradox of the life of this woman artist. I have embraced my love of the color pink and the vintage teal that stands for home and comfort and I celebrate the drugs which allow me to create and thrive. By questioning what femininity and pharmaceuticals means to me, I hope to offer a record of one-woman artist’s journey into acceptance and the embrace of the feminine spirit I have denied for years. Recent works visualize the depolarization of my artist/feminine self. <br /><br />In <a href="https://www.sherfickart.me/#/artgallery/a-paxil-a-day/"><strong>A PAXIL A DAY</strong></a>, I chose to display the medications themselves in clear, pharmacy style mylar bags. Hung plainly on the wall in a grid pattern, I make my medical and emotional history transparent to the viewer. I am not ashamed of needing the prescriptions, I am proud of myself for seeking and developing a regime for well-being. A PAXIL A DAY serves as an announcement and/or ‘bulletin’ board of my status. By celebrating the pharmaceuticals which help me to live and thrive, by being unashamed to live authentically – I hope to alleviate the social prejudice that exists against mothers on medication.<br /><br />In <a href="https://www.sherfickart.me/#/artgallery/coping-skills/"><strong>COPING SKILLS,</strong></a> I have confronted and embraced my history of medical issues and my use of anti-anxiety and anti-depression prescriptions. After a practice of collecting all the prescriptions and their bottles since 1997, I chose to crazy quilt them with vintage fabrics utilizing tatting thread in rough, utilitarian stitches. By displaying these bottles (45 which equal one year of medications) on a plain wooden altar with a plexi-mirrored shelf, I celebrate the life I have been able to live due to their remedies. As a result of pharmaceutical intervention, I maintain a well-being of physical and emotional health which allows me to be the best wife, mother, artist, and human I can be.
Location
The location of the interview
Spring Hill
Tennessee
USA
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sher Fick
Title
A name given to the resource
Sher Fick
anti-depressants
family
family ties
installation
medication
mixed media
motherhood
postpartum
postpartum depression
textile
-
https://artistparentindex.com/files/original/af96f19681a46c23f188ccd99abe2fd0.jpg
dbff5bcdbceeb17a4fee632593c185a7
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Artist Parent Index
Person
An individual.
Website
The Artist's website
<a href="https://jessievanderlaan.com/home.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://jessievanderlaan.com/home.html</a>
Medium
drawing
fiber art
printmaking
sculpture
Location
The location of the interview
Knoxville
Tennesee
USA
Artist Statement
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">My current work views the world through the lens of a parent, simultaneously embracing joy, frustration, hope and fear. My work has always engaged in the liminal states of consciousness, through examinations of precipices, seams, folds, and crevices. In this new work, figurative elements of hands: my own and my children’s, become further lenses for exhuberence or despair. In some cases the hands obscure, and in others highlight. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Both experiences are true, useful, and not mutually exclusive. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">I often feel that my arms are my most precious resource. They allow me to hold hands across parking lots, to carry bags, to prepare meals, to wash dishes, to gesture when I am intensely speaking, to draw, to write, and they are often full. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Precarious balance has always been at the crux of my work, and never has it seemed more true to my lived experience than as an artist and mother.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> The imagery included with the arms and hands continues to reflect the landscape, as I am habitually drawn to rock formations and fields of flowers. I connect this imagery to the world we inhabit, are desperate to protect, and which holds the history of generations. Through this work, I hope to examine and share the experience of motherhood, in all that is devastating, and all that is jubilant. </span></p>
Topic
parenting
motherhood
fear
hope
post-partum
post-partum depression
post-partum anxiety
environment
landscape
feminism
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Jessie Van der Laan
drawing
fiber art
printmaking
sculpture