The art and the emotions of being a mother - exhibition of mums' art opens

A LIMERICK artist now living in County Clare is taking a tongue-in-cheek look at motherhood in a new series which is being launched this Sunday.

Entitled Motherhood ­ WTF, the series "gives space to all of the emotions of motherhood from the funny and heartwarming through to loss and grief" according to artist Jennifer Donohue.

Originally from Kilcolman in west Limerick, Jennifer now lives in Ennis, County Clare with her husband Micheal, their son Conor and two greyhounds, Ella and Hugo.

The west Limerick native is joining 39 other artists from Limerick and Clare under the Art Limerick umbrella for their annual Autumn Art Fair at the Milk Market in Limerick.

“The title is definitely tongue-in-cheek but it's hard to capture the complexity of parenthood emotions in a one liner!” Jennifer admits.

“Especially when the emotions range from pure love and adoration to overwhelm, wonder, loss, grief, anger and amazement. I could go on but you get the picture.

“The title comes from a verse in a poem that I wrote and it goes like this: "They say don't talk about the hard stuff, you've a child ­ what luck!

“You knew what you signed up for, so nothing should suck. But here in the trenches, we know we can talk about the muck. All I can say is, motherhood ­ WTF?!”

“The idea for the series is to take a creative look at different aspects of motherhood and open things up for discussion. We're more than happy to talk about the joys of being a parent but are not always so open about the harder aspects.”

Though she hadn't painted since she did her Leaving Certificate in Newcastle West's Desmond College, Jennifer took an art course with Limerick artist Jim Furlong at Limerick College of Further Education in 2018.

From there she dabbled in painting but it wasn't until early 2022 when Jennifer really got to grips with what she wanted her art to say.

“In early 2022 I went back to writing as a way of processing some pretty difficult emotions. I had three miscarriages between August 2020 and April 2021. I had an appointment with the miscarriage clinic in late 2021 and had bottled up a lot of the emotional impact the whole experience had on me.

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“So I wrote it out. And suddenly it was like a creative dam burst and all these poems and prose about my experiences of motherhood and early childhood came rushing out of me. And not only that, but I started to play around with creating a visual representation of those emotions as well.”

Jennifer worked as a reporter in Limerick for a number of years in her early to mid-20s so it wasn't a surprise that writing began to play a part in her creative practice, but she said that it came out in the form of poetry did surprise her.

“I am having so much fun with it and it allows me to explore so many emotions and ideas in a much fuller way. My idea is to give the associated poem to anyone who buys a piece at the fair. Though I know not everyone might relate to the poem ­ some might just want one of the pieces because they like the art, without the associated story and I think that's great too.

“I want to connect with as many people as possible through my art.

“I work intuitively and so a lot of my work comes to life as florals, seascapes or landscapes for instance. I want to make it as accessible as possible while staying true to how I like to create. And I hope that resonates with people.”

She said an important driver behind her art was being able to discuss and open up about topics that might be a bit harder for people.

“I do cover harder topics through my art. I remember after having my miscarriages that I told nobody outside of the immediate family. It was such a tough place to be in. And once I opened up about it, I felt so much better.

“With one in four pregnancies ending in miscarriages, I know that there are a lot of people out there going through it and they might not be able to talk about it.

“Knowing you're not alone definitely helps. And for me, getting creative was such an amazing journey for me. It really helped me to process and progress. And if me sharing my journey can help other people do that, then I want to be open about it.”

Jennifer's work can be seen in a special online exhibition at jenniferdonohueart.com or in person at the Art Limerick Autumn Art Fair in the Milk Market this Sunday between 11am and 4pm.