The Motherhood Project

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Art is rarely the result of true genius, rather it is a combination of hard work and skills practiced by regular people...

With this particular body of work, I forged ahead with the spirit and strength of my iconic mid-century female artist predecessors. Their Neo-Maternalism contemporary artists’ approach to motherhood paved the way for those of us who struggle with enormous discrepancies between the reality of motherhood and the image of it. The unwritten rule has been that making art is a consuming obsession that leaves no time or space for worldly responsibilities like childrearing. Their ambition and bravery pushed past that mentality and truly gave us the freedom to have it all.

This work is a hybrid of the contemporary, figurative and abstract.
The paintings channel the screaming, fractured energy and loving frustration that come from being both an artist and a mother, but ultimately transcend specific circumstances to make a more universal statement about life’s challenges and satisfactions that is neither masculine nor feminine.

My fine art background: I paint with a deep respect and passion for the things I feel and see. A purposeful transition from the mental to the visual.

My professional background: Owner of 2001 self-started marketing and design company, CREATAVISION. Senior Partner and Creative Director at CREATAVISION Partners Marketing. Long-standing, varied client base from the arts to higher education to the auto industry.

My educational background includes a BFA from College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI. where I studied fine art, photography, marketing & design – as well as various creative classes throughout the years.

I have painted murals, I have painted rocks. I will paint on anything.

-Shelly Conway