By: Marissa Parks
“Being a mom is hard, it’s constant work, its emotional, and its just…its just hard.”
Growing up, Chelsea Klewicki was diagnosed with autism and feared that she would not be able to have a family of her own and struggled at times with communication. Overcoming the obstacles of autism, Klewicki will graduate this spring not only with her bachelor’s in fine arts, but as a successful mother and wife. Today, Klewicki, a senior at Valdosta State University, displays her motherhood inspired series in the Spring 2020 Senior Exhibition before her graduation. As an Expressionist, she shares her story of going from a college student, to a mother through her paintings and sculpture.
It Takes a Village to Raise a Child is an oil painting of two women standing back to back, at a side view, feeding babies. Standing on the left is an African American woman in a burnt orange dress, bottle feeding a Caucasian baby. One the right is a Caucasian woman in a green dress, breast feeding an African American baby. Both stand before an ultramarine background. With an image as strong as this, what is the general response from the audience? Klewicki is thrilled that the overall response is positive, but she acknowledges how it could be perceived as controversial to some. “I was told to second guess this painting, tread lightly, and that it could be interpreted as harmful.” That’s far from Klewicki’s intentions. She sees it as a motherhood, a union of women supporting one another and their offspring. Its not the nurturing of one child, but all. An “all in this together” mentality. After the birth of her child, she feels this motherly instinct to all children, the desire to want to protect them and keep them safe. In her work, she addresses multi-racial relationships, donor mothers, and even adoption.
Klewicki goes beyond addressing social topics, and visually depicts emotional experiences. As the pregnancy experience changes your body, it also changes your mind. She describes pregnancy as “beautiful,” “whole,” and “hard.” Her painting Mother of Three expresses all of those. It’s a half profile of a naked woman’s body painted cobalt blue. The blue symbolizes the deep, intense struggles of postpartum depression. The model of this painting was insecure of her body after birth, the physical changes such as weight gain and stretch marks altered the way she thought of herself, ultimately leading to postpartum. Physical changes were acknowledged in Klewicki’s painting Life. Its of another woman’s naked torso, but this time painted in red. The red expresses the intensity of the physical pain. There are several deep, textural cracks in the breast of the woman. Although some may see them as stretch marks, Klewicki uses these cracks to symbolize the pain when the breasts develop milk. Blind Woman demonstrates fainting spells through a painting of a woman whose eyes are covered with a white blindfold.
Using striking colors and texture, Klewicki visually communicates not only her own physical and emotional experiences with pregnancy and motherhood, but the experiences of others as well. She doesn’t shy away from potential controversy and covers social, physical and emotional topics. Klewicki explored expressionism through this series and plans on venturing deeper. Upon graduation, Klewicki wants to continue working at her son’s day care and teaching color to children. She plans on getting a degree in teaching and continue to share her knowledge and experience with others.
Marissa Parks is a Bachelor in Arts senior at Valdosta State University. Upon graduation, she plans on pursuing a career as an Assistant Curator in a museum setting.
