Corynn Kokolakis
Building Blocks
Building Blocks, 72×48, oil and acrylic on panel, 2014 to 2023
Building Blocks is from my MFA thesis exhibition entitled M(y)otherwork that considers how the practices of mothering and painting influence and inform one another while often remaining at odds.
These pieces speak to the constant negotiation of autonomy between child and mother. The paintings present from the point of view of the mother the ebb and flow of autonomy through the stages of development and in turn the stages of mothering. The child’s developing autonomy is suggested through the maternal gaze and direct refusal of the literal representation of the mother. The rekindled autonomy of the mother is indicated through the material manipulation of paint and the physical negotiation of the mother/artist conundrum (one can not be both a “good mother” and a “good artist”).
Corynn Kokolakis is a Canadian figurative oil painter whose practice merges the often-disparate roles of mother and artist. Influenced by embodied knowledge and materiality, her work explores memory, childhood development, and the labour of caregiving. She holds an MFA in Visual Art From York University and a BFA in Drawing and Painting from OCAD University. Her work is held in public and private collections in the UK, the US, Australia, France, and Canada. www.corynn.com