Terracotta, acrylic paint, wood

25” x 23” x 23”

2017

"Lilly Expecting; a boy or a girl?" portrays Lilly, when she was pregnant with her first child.  Over the weeks in the studio, Lilly's physical appearance gradually changed, as did her inner world -- week by week, blossoming into a new version of herself.  I tried to capture this metamorphosis in a portrait, focusing on her emotional, rather than physical, changes.  The clay allowed me to explore the pliability of Lilly's different moods. From different angles this portrait reflects her youthful giddiness and excitement, her sense of expectancy, and her serenity about upcoming motherhood.  At one moment, an evolving sense of calm and security would spread over her body; in the next, it would be overcome with the question she could not help but ask again and again—will she have a boy or a girl? Lilly and her husband chose not to know the baby's gender before the birth.  Over the weeks in the studio, bursting with anticipation and excitement Lilly tried to peek into the future, imagining what it would feel like to raise a boy or a girl.  The portrait explores Lilly's intimate world, the enigma of fundamental changes happening in a woman's body and to her identity as she blossoms into motherhood, while inviting us, too, to peek into her future.