New Artist Collaboration!

My dear friend, Jenny Grumbles, and I asked each other several months ago, what would it look like if we combined our two very different painting styles into one painting?

Jenny has been a pivotal influence, friend and role model for me since I joined the artist community four years ago. And like me, Jenny is also the mom to an only-child, a 6 year old son.

While creating this work, Jenny and I got vulnerable with each other about our current challenges. For Jenny, she bravely expressed it is making room for pain amidst the pursuit of joy. She shares more about this in her incredible story below.

For me, it is caring for my child while also caring for my creativity. This summer I left the studio to spend time with my son, and while we had an amazing summer together, a big part of me began to ache, a feeling I’ve learned other artists have when they are not creating. It helped me realize that while my son is always the sun, I must never abandon my innate desire to create.

Jenny summarized it very clearly, “The most common threads of you and me are that we care deeply about our work and our little boys.” While our styles and our approaches to painting differ, Jenny and I ultimately created a painting about Care.

We filled our painting with our desire for the harmony of opposites, of the identities that often feel at odds with one another, of the strong pulls we hope to unify.

Thanks for joining us in this collective journey.

THE SHAPE OF CARE
Jenny Grumbles and Mione Plant
Artist Collaboration
37x37, Acrylic on Canvas, Framed in Maple Wood

If Care had a shape, what would it be? A shape flowing and curving, or broad and unbending?

Could Care be a triangle? Strong and not timid, her base a foundation of support. Pointing her child and herself towards exploration, towards beauty, towards truth.

The shape of Care both solid, filled with her presence and her nurture, and open, the spaces between allowing room to breathe, to play in pattern and color and texture.

Her shape the creative output fueled by the harmony of opposites - of light and dark, of solids and patterns, of structure and freedom, of plans and spontaneity, of challenge and ease, of right following wrong, of independence and interdependence, of motherhood and selfhood.

Her shape evolves beyond the singular facet of motherhood, towards a union of all the identities that light her up; a complete and multifaceted gem.

We are the shape of Care.

• Mione Plant

My work = a direct representation of how I roll. Quick strokes. Not bothering to think through any potential negative consequence. Grasping for light, and the brightest colors possible. Drowning out silence, trying to ignore any sadness. 

I love painting children, meaningful memories, candid moments with tons of light. I search for those moments all day. I’m a feel good person. I want anything and everything that will make me feel joy. 

Im a spaz with anxiety. I don’t like to turn towards the angst, so I use it as fuel to keep going - to paint hard, mom hard, and love hard. 

Mione would ask, what is the shape of all that I just wrote? I would say a sunshine with zig zags and broken lines, and maybe a pink heart or two. 

Making art with Mione Plant was just what I needed. It satisfied my obsession with finding joy, yet calmed my soul and made me turn towards my angst instead of cover it up and run.  Her shapes are calculated. They are careful and calming.  She makes you really think about it. She made my painting into the shape of the person I want to be for myself, my son, and the world. She is beautiful in a way that makes you cry. 

I was just talking on the phone with a BFF about something hard in her life I had been through already. When we hung up she text me, “You’re the best. I can’t believe you don’t cry.”  I don’t very often. Maybe “the shape of care” is eventually a teardrop. 

If care was a shape, what would it be? Mione says maybe “it evolves beyond the singular facet of motherhood, towards a union of all the identities that light her up; a complete and multifaceted gem.”

Today we present to you…
“The Shape of Care”

• Jenny Grumbles

My design inspiration began with the Persian art form called Khatam. Growing up, we had decorative boxes gifted from my father’s family in Iran, adorned in this precisely-cut intricate geometric technique of inlaying. The triangular rods used in Khatam encouraged me to research the symbolism of triangles - identified by their support and strength, and often used to mark the cycles of growth. Creating a grid, I designed my own pattern of triangles that I repeated throughout this painting.

Next, I carefully mapped out a grid of 576 one-inch squares on top of Jenny’s work that would become the base of the triangle pattern

With four different tints of paint, I began painting in each triangle. It’s at this point I realized if I made a mistake in my work, there was no way to recreate or repaint Jenny’s work. This encouraged me to work slowly, meditatively and deliberately. It also made me think of motherhood and while mistakes are inevitable, I should always be intentional with the words I use with my son; some things are more challenging to undo.

Rather than using tape as an aide to achieve a fine line, I chose to paint each line unguided, by hand. Although more time-consuming, it allowed me to soak in the silence in the studio and sit with my thoughts after a summer out of the studio.

Our final step was to sign our finished shared work, together in my studio - a beautiful feeling of accomplishment and sisterhood. So grateful for Jenny’s light and her influence on my artist and motherhood journey.

In sisterhood and support of the mothers and creators in Afghanistan, a portion of the proceeds of this work will be donated to Women for Women International. Thank you for joining us!

• Jenny and Mione

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