Abby Newton
I See You Now
2021
Wood, steel, house paint
48” x 36” x 5”
This piece was an apology to my mom from my perspective of living on my own and having a more full understanding of the complexities within a maternal role in the home. The first statement is representative of a new facet of our relationship (person to person vs child to mother), and the second is an acknowledgement of all the times that she struggled alone, sometimes due to my actions. The color is pinpointed from a picture of her eyes since I wanted to make it personal to her while still creating a piece that could relate to people individually. It’s actually labeled as a green, even though it's more of a teal, and I always knew her eyes to be blue. This shift in my perception was an unintentional find, but it adds a lot to the piece for me. As far as construction I’m proud of how the pegboards and frames turned out, but I feel that the letters could’ve been more carefully executed. Between self inflicted time crunch and a lack of welding finesse, they’re all pretty sloppy, which I was hoping to only have happen towards the end of the phrase in order to show a sort of catching in the throat as it’s being said.
