Mom Brain series, by the talented Melissa Cook, depicts the daily life of the mom she is. The idea came into her mind after she discovered that her toddler had stuck stickers on her bottom… A discovery made after doing errands with them on. « Motherhood can have that humorous and humbling effect. So I decided to create the drawing ‘Mom Brain’ which depicts an unkempt French Braid, with Cheerios, stickers, and some miscellaneous liquid dripping from it. I like taking tropes of photorealism, like a glamorous French Braid, and infusing it with some grime, turning it on its head », she explains. This series was inspired by the first years of motherhood, « and fuses elements of realism with the transformative nature of new motherhood. Much imagery of it tends to be very idealized and «instagram-ready. In reality, being a mom can be disheveled and corporeal experience, while simultaneously being beautiful and transformative ».
