Whispers of Our Mothers

A call for collaboration

Photo by Galina Kondratenko on Unsplash

I am deeply concerned about the steep and slippery slide away from full citizenship that women in this country are experiencing and the ways that womens’ voices are being silenced. I know I am not alone. I feel the collective grief and fear emanating from American women. I’m not going to recount it all here: you know what is happening as well as I. What I am going to do is ask for your help in gathering materials to use in my next series of work, which relates directly to this subject.

Over the last several months, I’ve been researching and reviewing my family history, with a particular focus on my matrilineal line. I know names and dates of births, marriages, and deaths. I know facts of immigration and a bit about how they made a living, but apart from the history I have personally experienced, I don’t know much else. I have questions! What stories would they tell about themselves? What stories would their daughters, sisters, and nieces tell about them? I want to know the her-story of my people.

It has come to me that so much of womens lives are simply not recorded, our stories are not told, and we fade from memory, not known even to our daughters or granddaughters, and certainly not our great-granddaughters. Do you know the full names of your grandmothers and great-grandmothers? If you do, you are in the minority: recent studies show that far less than half Americans can name all four of their grandparents, nevermind previous generations.

I feel some tragedy in this. Were those lives full of purpose or drudgery? Were they rich with family and love, flush with ease or rife with grinding hardship? Did they have jobs? What did they look like? How were they shaped by their world? So many unanswered questions, because we just move on.

I am planning to make a series of images around this idea for a show I have coming up in 2025. At this point, I have concepts of a plan (I know, but I couldn’t help myself). I know it will evolve as I work, but right now I know I will work with shades of white, transparency and translucency, layers of collaged paper and sheer fabrics, charcoal and words.

Mary Elizabeth Murphy Schmidt, my mother’s mother

I don’t want this series to be only about me and my people. I would like it to be bigger, encompassing all our faded and forgotten mothers. I want to honor our ancestors in the way that I contribute and serve best: by manifesting thoughts and emotions in physical form.

Here’s where you come in:

If this resonates with you, would you consider taking a few moments to send me what you know about your women? Just make a comment here below or send me an email and I will provide you with a link to a secure drive where you can upload what you would like to share. I’m thinking of photos or scans of documents or, in your own hand, write out as much of their names as you know, tell me when they lived, where they lived, how they made a living, and what you may know about their lives. Send me a photograph if you have one. The more stories I can imbue into these pieces, the richer they will become.

Thanks for following along with me on this journey. I appreciate each one of you. and hope you will consider collaborating with me.