Curator Shirley Watts invited me to create an installation in an abandoned greenhouse in the LA Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. The derelict structure made of wood and broken glass was once used by scientists to conduct air quality and smog experiments.

The Solar Mothers pay homage to the Egyptian Goddess Taweret and her sisters- known as The Solar Mothers. These Humanoid Hippo headed, Serpent-tailed mythical creatures are the protectors of all birthing mothers and new born babies. They also deliver the sun over the horizon each morning. 

This work is inspired by my best friend Joan Keenan- a fierce midwife who worked with women in crisis in Winnipeg’s North End women’s health clinics. I was able to cast Joan’s body for this series before she died of cancer in 2020. 

The addition of the serpent tail connected the materiality of the work back to my earlier research conducted in the Tar Sands. In 2011, a Suncor Energy strip mining heavy equipment operator noticed a strange diamond pattern poking through the black oily sands. He shut down his equipment to inspect. What was discovered was a rare paleontological specimen: A fully mummified 20 million year old Nodosaur that included petrified eyeballs, internal organs and skin coloration. 

The Solar Mothers propose the possibility that an ancient Cenozoic Mother travelled through time and geology to deliver a message to the mining operator. In all her glorious and ancient sensuality, she revealed her whole body, including her kaleidoscopic scales to seduce the mining engineer to choose to shut down his equipment, drop to his knees in delicious submission and curiosity.