When my mom playfully asked if I could make a drawing of her, I wanted to portray her in a way that would be unconventional in her eyes. She is a very (head)strong woman who has been conditioned to keep up a tough front in the past. Therefore, I wanted to depict her in a calm and vulnerable way.

There had been a particular thought on my mind regarding my mother at that time. I kept thinking about how safe and at rest I feel when we are sleeping side-by-side, especially during the moment she reaches out to hook her finger on a piece of clothing I’m wearing at the time. Up to this day, I still don’t know what it is exactly that goes through her mind as she does this, but I like to believe that it is a sign of her wanting me to be there. With her.

This work was made with a mechanical pencil and watercolour crayons.

Vulnerability, arising at rest