Author: Helen Sargeant

I am a visual artist, mother of two children aged 12 and 4, and co-founder of the MeWe arts collective. I intend to use this site to explore how my personal experiences as a mother informs my arts practice. To reflect upon the maternal in relationship to memory, loss, and mental health in particular depression and post natal depression. To investigate and explore emotional wellbeing through an expression of the mother-self in arts practice. As I approach the menopause, as my eldest son reaches his teenage years and as my youngest son begins school, I find myself shifting between the then and the now. I find myself re-looking and investigating my maternity.

Website: http://helensargeant.co.uk

The porridge pot is not magic

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The porridge pot is not magic. It feeds but leaves a glutinous mess,  which is hard to shift,  It sticks,  It holds,    You sit in front of your bowl,  not wishing to wake. You spoon more and more,  honey … Continued

Phantom

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My eldest son becomes a teenager this year, its hard to remember back to a time when I wasn’t a mum. Yesterday a friend asked me ” What did you like to do before you were a mother ?” I … Continued

Mirror mirror

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Doubling, The eye, The camera lens, My reflection, You inside, Me inside And outside of motherhood, A changeling, Mirror, mirror. I loved watching my body changing in pregnancy, admiring my reflection in the mirror, breast’s enlarging, areole darkening, bump rising. … Continued

I must try harder to be a bad mother.

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It is wet and it is damp. The rain outside is perpetual. A greyness hangs in the air. The high winds prevented my sister visiting yesterday. The days slip one into another punctuated by too many mince pies, pudding and … Continued

Mum’s Christmas Cake

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Mum gave me a christmas cake yesterday. I haven’t even got through 2012’s creation yet, though I am sure that it would actually be fine to eat (I am not going to try). The thing is I’m not really that … Continued

Pregnant Dominoes

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When making this collage, I was thinking about the relationship that is formed with the unborn baby. Pregnancy can so often feel intangible. I found it difficult to imagine a baby living within my body, even though I was so … Continued