In this ongoing painting series I explore my personal and family history. In genetics, the term maternal line refers to how certain DNA is only passed on in the female line. The Maternal Line series is also about things passed on from grandmother to mother to daughter.

A realization of underlying trauma led me to start working on the series in 2019. Mother-daugher-relationships, different in each generation but never easy. Inherited feelings of shame, inferiority and outsiderness; a continuation of behavioral models and beliefs once useful to preserve the self, but later harmful. The difficulty of rising above your past, of giving in turn what you didn’t get.

But also: the inimitable personal process of growing up. The girlhood that lives on and the womanhood that evolves. Relationships that change and grow as time goes by. Where I come from and where I am going. Trauma, self-image, the feeling of self-worth; but also learning, forgiving, love, life, joy.