My year as a mother warrior

In 2010 I became a mother warrior and began my tribal journey.

One of my children was in danger.

I pulled out all the stops. Every moment of my waking days and barely sleeping nights focused on this child. There was none of my usual second guessing and ambivalence. I knew what I had to do.

It was the first time in my life that I acted mostly from instinct. 

I was bold and fearless.

And I felt like I was waging war.

I was fortunate to be working at the time with a (more than) art teacher named Cathy Dorris. She wanted to do a Tribal art show featuring work inspired by African headdresses. My art work up until this time was mainly drawings on paper:

Metamorphosis Mandala IV

Cathy Dorris is both artist and healer. She listened, shared her own mother warrior stories and helped me make the move from flat to 3-D.

For inspiration we poured over images of actual North African tribal headdresses. These became burned into my brain, and my first headdress was a pretty accurate replica of an actual male warrior's headdress - mud color and all.

Before long Cathy's studio became my haven.

And during this most nightmarish time of my life I created one tribal headdress after another, until I had made six (with visions of many more in my head.) I called them the "Mother Warrior Headdresses." I made them so that they can actually be comfortably worn.

The images below are of the first one of the series:

The Mother Warrior I

When I think back – I barely remember making them. When I look at them now I know they represent the unfettered and fierce out-pouring of my pain, anger, passion and hope.

Creating them empowered and sustained me during this dark time.

Occasionally I asked myself, "What are you doing? You are a white middle-class middle-aged suburban mother. Why are you obsessively creating things from a way of life of which you know nothing?"

All I can say is that it felt so right.

And I came to the conclusion that the world is smaller and we are more like others than we think.

Fierce mother-ness, creativity, symbols, archetypes, instincts, love, and at times -- a need to wage war on behalf of our families -- runs through us all.

With respect and openness we can take inspiration from anywhere there are other human-beings . . . and especially from other mothers.