Artist explores the womb of creativity
Multidisciplinary artist Ruby Sofrae pictures her transition from maiden to mother
IN THE DREAM, Ruby Sofrae is in her childhood home, trying to hang up the art for her new exhibition. It’s semi-stressful considering the stuff piled everywhere, including a May-time Christmas tree. For three nights she conjures this old nest, unsure why she’s there.
Awake, Sofrae considers nostalgia. She wants her in-progress oil painting, “Through the Birthing Portal” — a diptych which features a very-pregnant Sofrae crawling from an ancestral, abstract darkness through an ovular yellow threshold to face the balanced green abundance of new life — to have a semblance of nostalgia. Soon enough, she lets the REM whispers take shape in the upper-right-hand corner, etching her once-home’s hallway with many doorways. An answer to “What next?”
Sofrae — a 27-year-old mama-to-be — often works in conversation with the liminal space, be it dream, or the transition from maiden to motherhood. Her exhibit, “Matrescence” — opening at the Temple of the Crystal Races off Gusdorf Road on Friday evening (May 20th) — will showcase works the multidisciplinary artist made before pregnancy, and her documentation of gestation.
“It’s all about the in-between and the patience that it takes during that time,” said Sofrae, who’s lived in Taos off and on for four years and is now based in Sunshine Valley. “The subtle growth that’s happening.”
When Sofrae originally approached her “Portal” piece, she thought for sure she’d be shedding skin in it. Molting like a snake, specifically, to match the theme in her other oil pregnancy paintings — seeing this transitional time through other species’ transitions.
For example, in “Chrysalis,” Sofrae sleeps comfortably inside of a cocoon. In “The Creatrix / Waiting to Crack Open,” Sofrae meditates inside of an egg with multiple sets of arms. One pair of hands touch her heart (signaling selflove), another her growing belly (creativity) and the last rest face-up toward the sky in reception.
“I’ve been learning through this series to let go of perfectionism, to become looser, to have more allowance,” said Sofrae, who feels her pregnancy has helped clarify her creative commitments, grounding this form of spirituality. “Mistakes are going to happen in my creative practice and in motherhood. That’s just how we grow and learn. That’s how I let baby be who they’re going to be.”
Another dream. This one a couple