Shaped In Fire: Mother & Mastectomy Goddesses

With great delight I had been flame sculpting my Goddess pendants and exploring the range of the full figured shapes in the glass form.  It seemed worthwhile to bring something into existence that was outside of the pop-cultural standards of beauty.  It was a way of reclaiming the female form in celebration of the mother body; with heavy hips, breasts that look like the milk just came in, and an ample belly full of potential and new life.  Inspired by the transformation of my own body through pregnancy and post-partum, they were my little gifts to motherhood.  

“When are you going to make one that is MY body type? One that is smaller chested with more of an athletic build?” a friend of mine casually lamented upon examination of a fresh batch Goddess pendants.  Turning the work over in my hands, I looked at it again with fresh eyes, absorbing her earnest inquiry. 

 

 

As I sat down to make the next round of work at the torch several days later, my friend’s words were still in my mind. The reason I had not created her body type, yet, was because in glass her figure would read as a Maiden’s figure. It is a figure untested by pregnancy and the physically transformative aspects of motherhood.   The Maiden’s figure is popular to the visual vocabulary of women, as it is highly prized by our culture to the point of obsession. It was not my intent to recapitulate an echo of these ideals in the figures I had been making.  

The Mother figure, art historically speaking, is representative of the Great Mother, power of the female spirit, and the mysteries of womanhood.  It was important to me create something that had an inherent meaning as an object d’art that offered connotations about the power of the Mother body.  I was explaining all of this to my friend in my head while self-consciously shaping a figure, hyper-aware of each aesthetic choice.  “Why not make her body type?” I posited, “why not celebrate any and all body types for that matter?”. 

Snapping a shot of the work in progress, I considered the many forms the female figure can take; from the voluptuous mothers, to the elderly crones, to the sinewy maidens, to the trans-gendered body, the surgically altered body, and so on.  

It was at this point I paused to consider my next step, which was the application of the breasts.  “A woman has power as a woman even with no breasts at all, “ I concluded, recalling the image of my mother, standing in front of the mirror scrutinizing her mastectomy scar.

Exchanging the glass rod in my hand for a sculpting too, I defined the ribcage instead.  Then, with great delicacy, I added a small pink stripe, a scar, where each breast would be.  My heart pounded in my head as I finished her.  My blood raced as if I was creating something of possible great significance, that offered itself to serve as an embodiment of power, of healing, and transformation. 

 

I have made only a few more mastectomy goddesses since then.  One was purchased as a gift for a friend who was having the upcoming surgery.  There was great love in that little piece of glass.  It was amazing to know the work was going to take part in someone’s healing process as it was intended to be.  

The very first one, has been added to my personal collection. I wear it in proud memory of my mother, who was a Goddess, before and after her mastectomy.  

This and future Mastectomy Goddesses, along with Belly Goddess pendants will be available in my Etsy store. Shop here