Moon Shells

The unblemished moon shell is round and smooth with delicate grooves built around a spiral structure. It begins life as an egg embedded in the sand, emerging to swim briefly in the shallow waters before settling to the bottom of the sea.

The hard encasing protects the living organism inside as it plows through the sands, gets tossed by the waves and pulled by the tides. The sea heaves the moon shell against the rocks. Seagulls pluck the shell from the coast, discarding the empty casing back onto the shore. Eventually the shell begins to show signs of wear, as tiny cracks and fractures emerge.

These scars interrupt the perfect spiral of the moon shell. The once completely protected inner chamber can now be glimpsed. Through the small holes and narrow fissures is a dark, mysterious space. Larger gaps and crevices reveal the vulnerable insides until, eventually, the shell is so broken that there seems to be little that distinguishes the outer shell from the inside it once sheltered.

The Moon Shell drawings emerged during the time I was pregnant with my son. I was thinking about his home inside my body, and about my hope to provide a safe environment for him to grow. I wondered if my imperfect physical and psychological self really had everything it took to create a healthy space to nurture him. Those concerns have evolved to questions about our family, our home, our world. It is all fractured, broken, imperfect.