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Alexandra Carter: The Mother Shell from Alexandra Carter

ARTIST STATEMENT

I paint the female body in states of transformation—pregnancy, birth, postpartum—to reveal the visceral realities of motherhood. I want to know how this experience consumes, ruptures, and remakes the self. I’m drawn to the monstrous feminine—the reproductive body as both feared and revered, vola

Growing up on a cranberry farm in Massachusetts, I was immersed in cycles of fertilization, growth, and harvest—rhythms that shape my work. Cranberries become metaphors for the reproductive body: swollen, fertile, bleeding. The harvest’s dependence on flooding echoes my fascination with contain

I often use my own body as a model, staging performances for the camera to explore personal and archetypal imagery. I draw from folklore and mythology, reimagining figures whose transformations mirror the physical and psychological shifts of motherhood. These mythic bodies—splitting, mutating—s

Through these paintings, I confront the contradictions of motherhood—its tenderness and violence, power and erasure, creation and consumption—an experience that is both universal and deeply personal.... more

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Alexandra Carter
Stigmama, 2021
Ink on drafting film
33 x 29.5 in
$1,800

Here I referenced photos taken during one of my “self-performances” (private performances for my camera, which often instigate new paintings) of myself while pregnant. I painted it after giving birth, having seen into the actual experience of motherhood--one in which I was surprised (pleasantly, in a way) at how aggressive and primal this new role feels. There is a sense of being the ultimate protector for this being. So I’ve been looking at images of animals and plants that have built-in protective layers, such as porcupines and cacti. It was interesting to visualize that protective aggression as some kind of bodily weaponry, while paying subtle heed to art history’s religious iconography and perhaps to my upbringing, with her cranberry-like headdress.