First self portrait

2019

Working on my first self portrait titled: A Waning Moon. Prompted by an ABC news article about the tight lockdowns in Sydney.

A mother of a newborn baby is being ridiculed in the comments section for expressing her scepticism of the prolonged lockdown measures in NSW which have prevented her from accessing post partum support. One person remarking that perhaps she has no support because no one wants to see her.

I couldn’t help but think that this spoke to a wider societal issue that devalues mothers. The difficulty of caring for a newborn is ever present in my memory. Have we completely lost our humanity? Are we not allowed to debate & discuss government lockdown measures? To express difficulties?

It speaks to the state of society’s mental health during this pandemic and an insidious nature that exists in humanity.

I worry about the world I’ve brought my daughter into.