A rainbow baby is a baby born after the loss of another child either through miscarriage or stillbirth. The name comes from the image of a rainbow after a storm, a sign of hope. Post-storm rainbows can also be connected to the story of Noah’s Ark; after killing almost everything in a great flood, God apologized by creating a rainbow (Genesis 9:13).
As a rainbow baby myself, I have felt the weight of optimism all my life. There is an expectation set upon children to be good, to be the future, to hold difficult problems in their hands while still maintaining innocence and wonder. These expectations, however, often do not align with our experiences. Children feel grief, witness destruction, and worry about their loved ones like any other person. They are not immune to reality and neither are we.
Baby Rainbow explores the relationship between what we expect and what we receive through a series of constructed images and straight photography. By invoking symbols of houses, angels, and gardens, I establish a place that is both transient and transpersonal -- a space that plays with both nostalgia and fiction. By creating images, I practice autonomy. As a child I felt voiceless but now as an adult I can speak for myself. And, through art-making, I can allow my inner child to regain their voice.
[This work is ongoing and always evolving.]