Red thread on watercolour paper (300 gsm)
12x12in (30x30cm), framed
2025
MARTINA (1960-)
This piece honours my mother Martina—my greatest influence and a model of quiet resilience. She grew up on a farm in Germany and lost her father when she was just two. An only child until age eleven, she later welcomed two younger siblings after her mother remarried. At 19, she migrated to Canada to start a new life with her husband, carrying with her the dream of a large family.
She went through seven pregnancies—three ending in miscarriage, and four resulting in the children she raised, including me. The embroidered forms in this piece speak to that journey: of fragility and strength, loss and persistence. It’s a quiet tribute to the invisible labour of motherhood—its griefs, its endurance, and the courage it takes to begin again.