Devastating Loves & Transcendent Hatreds : Jennifer Roberts : Divine Defiance of The Mental Load 

Divine Defiance of The Mental Load
Acrylic, paper collage, ink, aerosol, gold leaf on canvas 
30 x 40 inches, 2023
$2,000.00

I made this piece for every woman who has ever had to bear an unfair burden of household work at the hands of an unwilling or willfully incompetent partner. I took a defiant gesture, made it ultra feminine, adorned it in a divine halo wreathed in flowers, and set it on top of a rant that I tore into strips and sanded down until it reminded me of dirty dishwater. 

The rant in full reads, "I'm not your fucking mommy. Clean up for once in your goddamn life. Why would I ever want to be your stupid little live-in maid? I'm not the household project manager. Do the fucking dishes, you slob. Take a shower and go to therapy. Yes I'm angry. Fuck yes I'm angry. Burn it all. Burn them all." 

Women's anger is a sacred, purifying catalyst for change. It's my hope that this piece will inspire more people to accept and honor the power of our anger. 

This piece is part of my series on motherhood, Raw, exposing the forceful emotions that mothers experience but seldom share such as rage, mourning, the frustration of domestic duties, and the animalism of motherhood.

Jennifer Roberts’ arts education began through jazz voice and continued through Argentine tango, where technique and presence intersect. This dance-and-breath energy informs her artwork. Tango combines focused attention to the minutiae of technique with wild abandon to the now. It’s an intoxicating juxtaposition of different energies held together in the present moment.

Jennifer begins with washes of color, sometimes directing it with brushes, pipettes, and spray bottles, other times letting it flow naturally. The result is a dynamic expression of media that remains tantalizingly beyond complete conscious control. Ink additions to these paintings create tension and call to mind something organic, yet celestial. An interplay of control and spontaneity, she invites viewers to experience a dynamic tension between lightness and darkness. Jennifer regularly exhibits her art throughout the United States and internationally. She continues to dance Argentine tango and is also a stand-up comedian.