Lizabeth Marks-Shepard, Brookston, IN

Watercolor

Size: 18" x 22"

As I painted a mother and infant emerged as the focus of this work. The mother grew wings, which made me consider how much I have grown and changed since becoming a mother to two daughters. My experience is far from unique.

So scary at first: how to hold her without breaking her? Will she grow to love me? A mother desires to keep her infant safe, surrounded by love, symbolized here by wings. The first infant was followed by a second daughter, so different from the first and very fragile.

Both were wrapped in my wings while my metamorphosis to mother and theirs to grown daughters occurred. Now my daughters have undergone the process of their own metamorphosis. The cycle is complete and I find joy in knowing that.