Allison DeBritz
This project explores three generations of female artists, my mother’s memory surrounding her abusive childhood with a mentally ill mother, and her experience breaking the cycle of generational trauma. I examine the sacrifice and gendered expectations entrenched in motherhood—specifically the roles women are expected to fulfill in domestic spaces and relationships. After my mother and grandmother, I am the third generation of female artists in my family. Both women became wives, mothers, and homemakers despite their talent and education, giving up their artistic careers to raise a family. The connection between these repeating matrilineal strains, interrupted artistic practices, and history of mental illness deeply affects my ability to simultaneously imagine my future as an artist and mother. While creating this work, my mother and I had many honest conversations, spurring my desire to generate a broader dialogue about motherhood and mental health that is capacious, honest, and accessible. This work rejects cliché tropes of motherhood and mental illness––instead, it expands the complicated and nuanced understanding my mother and I have of ourselves as women and artists as we navigate our relationship that is breaking cycles of generational trauma.
Allison DeBritz
Allison DeBritz (b. 1993) is an artist and educator whose work intimately considers the gendered paradigms of domestic spaces and relationships through an interdisciplinary feminist lens. She uses photography, collage, video, and installation as part of a ritualist process, engaging with the psychological narratives woven throughout her work. DeBritz holds an MFA in Art Photography from Syracuse University and a BFA in Photography from SUNY New Paltz. She currently lives and works in Upstate New York.