Grant Proposal

I’ve started thinking more and more of a life-sized paper dress coming to life. In the fall, I wrote a grant proposal to make the piece and exhibit it in a public building in downtown Portland. The proposal really took shape and I felt good about it, and tra-la, it was accepted! Here is a brief synopsis of my proposal: 

Nine years ago, a father walked by me as I was nursing my newborn son at the Portland Japanese Garden and pointed me out to his children, stating: “That is one of the most beautiful things in the world.” As a first-time mother, it meant a lot to me -- that he could see beauty in something I took for granted and even hesitated doing in public. My sculpture “Mother Tree” seeks to visually portray my subsequent reflections about that chance encounter. This sculpture serves as a symbol of the vulnerability, strength and sense of community I feel as a mother: vulnerable as a mother learning how to do something with great responsibility for the first time; strong in the knowledge that we mothers can provide our children with everything they need; and in community knowing that mothers before me have nurtured their children and mothers after me will continue to do so.