Loie Hollowell

Your work transforms deeply personal experiences into abstract, universal forms. How did your experience of motherhood and breastfeeding lead you to creating Mother's Milk?

I use abstract geometric forms to explore experiences my body has gone through. Mother's Milk depicts the feeling of breastfeeding and the self-empowerment I felt having the ability to create this life-sustaining nutrient.

Can you tell us about the different symbolic shapes in the composition, such as the ogee at the bottom of the piece and the circles representing time at the top?

The vesica piscis of overlapping circles symbolises the meeting of heaven and earth, and in the overlap I painted a drop of golden colostrum or breastmilk. On the right side is a cartoonish depiction of my breast, and the circles arching over the top of the composition are representations of time passing, like the movement of a clock's pendulum, or a sundial. The ogee is a shape I've used for a long time in my paintings, both as a pedestal whose point holds up specific bodily forms and as an abstraction of my breast. In that way, both of my breasts are represented in this painting: one more realistic, the other completely abstracted.

This limited edition print marks our first collaboration together. What has it been like translating Mother's Milk into an edition, and what made this the right work for this moment?

It's always interesting to see the three-dimensional painting transformed into a flat image. In this moment when reproductive rights and freedom are once again under attack in the U.S., I felt that this image was timely. I also think that the flat areas of bold color translate well to the screenprinting process. I was really pleased with the inclusion of the iridescent overlay which mimics the sponge texture in the painting. It's not something I would have ever thought of including and that's the joy of working in collaboration with master printers—having new techniques introduced.