Mother Bone by Mary Willette
Artist Statement
Mother Bone is one part of a series of pelvis explorations that I began while I was pregnant and thinking about my relationship to my body and time. Our pelvis cradles our intimate histories and creates a portal for our futures. In a year where days and months had somehow blurred together, stood still, and raced ahead all at once, I was left with an opening to consider the deep time of my body and its internal rhythms. My son was born in the fall, and I started collecting leaves on our walks for their kinship to a kind of paper bone and skin. Over six months, I slowly collaged them together while thinking about the turning of a new season for me into motherhood, and the fragility I felt during that transition.
Mary Willette is a multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of sculpture and performance. Inspired by the complexity of human relationships, her work draws from the seemingly mundane functions and structures of our bodies—breath, tongues, bones, and wrinkled skin—as material and metaphor. Willette received her MFA from the University of Michigan in 2015 and her BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 2005, where she concentrated on glass and print media. www.marycwillette.com