Artwork > Collages

M. M. Dupay, collage, figurative art, feminist art, shoe, pink, spine, backbone, vertebrae, sit & tell, Toledo, storytellers, chairs
She's got my back and so from her I rise--Sit & Tell Project chair #53
collage (reproduced on chair for project)
2016

Beatrice Daniels’ story, “riding my back”, speaks of a mother’s gift of herself. Playing off of “riding my back,” I want to celebrate the beauty of the vertebrae as both a source of protection and shelter as well as path forward and upward. Sheltered by her mother’s love, the daughter is able to seek her own way, knowing that though her mother also "has her back". The hands cradle a little girl’s shoe from which rises bone upon bone the inner strength that supports her grown daughter.

This piece was made as part of the Sit & Tell Project, Toledo, that paired artists with local storytellers sharing tales of the strong women who influenced their lives. The artworks and stories were exhibited as chairs in several locations around the Toledo area starting in March 2016, and culminated in all 100 chairs being shown together on September 24th in the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion.