Michelle Froh Claudot

Changing roles, 2021

Acrylic and PVA glue on wood panel

20 x 26 in

This portrait piece is the first of a series in which I began to question my place in the world after leaving my marriage of 10 years, and choosing to take back my individual life, and my role as a mother.

The process of layering paint and glue (the drying time, the uncontrollable effects of the two materials mixing together) became a reflective practice as to what my role was for so many years as a wife, a mother, a woman. Get it done, cover it up, make it pretty, keep it safe, and make sure that it’s well done.

I find this piece relevant as a work in response to mother hood because the portrait in the end, though traditional and well composed from far, up close reveals the layers that I cut into and ripped away.

This very physical and difficult action to destroy parts of the layers that had accumulated, became therapeutic. And, only through this destruction was I able to understand why I was painting this face, this regard, with these materials. I was raw, tired, and keeping it all together for everyone to see that I was okay.

@frohclaudo