Featured Artist

“Soft Animals,” a curated show of ceramic, textile, video, and painted pieces, is now on display at Bes in Millerton, NY. Curated by owner and ceramicist Erica Recto, the show features the artwork of seven different local artists, including Recto, all of whom are mothers. 

About the show 

The show is titled “Soft Animals,” after a line in Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese,” and is based on the idea of how a person’s creative process changes after they have a child. 

From the Bes website, “Ultimately this show imagines the creative process as emerging from a cocoon – unfurling into new shapes. As parenting breaks you open and strips you bare, how do you answer Oliver’s call to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves? How does experience transform one’s creative output? It now functions as an escape, timekeeper, meditation, grieving process, even liberation.”

About the artists

The show features works from Jamie Goldenberg from Great Barrington, MA, Tara Hogan from Fayetteville, NY, Meg Musgrove and Erica Recto, both from Millerton, Jessica Jane Ruseel from Sharon, CT, Filiz Soyak from Hudson, NY, and Katie Westmoreland from Manhattan, NY.

One of the pieces is a framed list of art ideas by Katie Westmoreland that she wasn’t able to complete once she had her daughter. 

On the opposite wall is a large-scale fabric piece created by Meg Musgrove. The piece was completed over a long period of time, with small parts of it being done when Meg had time to create while her baby was napping or otherwise occupied. The piece is representative of the ways in which priorities change and time for hobbies lessens after you become a mother. 

One of Recto’s pieces on display is titled “Touched Out,” which is a term used among mothers that refers to the struggle of sensory overload from constantly being touched by your children.

“The piece is kind of awkward,” she said. “You’re not sure if or where to touch it, and that kind of encompasses the feeling of being ‘touched out’ as a mother.” 

Before she had children, Erica sculpted many pieces that were of practical use – think bowls, plates, cups, etc. – but after having her child, she found herself wanting to reconnect with herself as an artist and creating pieces that were less functional and more abstract. 

“Soft Animals” is on view at Bes until August 31st. Visit the gallery at 50 Main Street, Millerton, NY on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 11am to 4pm, or visit online at https://www.shop-bes.com/gallery.