Gini Lawson
www.ginilawson.com
Artist’s Statement
"Are You My Mother?", a series in progress, deals with issues of identity, family, and childhood memories. Through my paintings I am exploring the relationships hidden beneath the surface of familial bonds.
The writer Robb Forman Drew says it so well, in a discussion of her book The Evidence Against Her:
"Each one of us has a different entity in mind when we speak of our families. Siblings grow up in entirely separate families. Two children in the same family, who have witnessed exactly the same event, are likely to disagree with each other about the accuracy of the other’s memory of that event. Of course, they’re both right."
My family had its share of trauma. For some of us these traumas shaped our lives, for others they cast a mere shadow on identities already formed. The constant was the seemingly idyllic era into which we were born, where genuine emotion was buried under the guise of the perfectly happy family.
The paintings in my "Are You My Mother?" series are based on snapshots culled (sometimes stolen!) from our family albums. In doing the work I hope to express an emotional response to the mystery of family from the perspective of distance and years passed.