MY MOM'S GREATEST WORK

A Virtual Gallery

My mom never planned to become a photographer. In fact, she thought she’d be a writer. But sometime in her 40’s she took her first class at our local community college and caught the bug. Since then she has taken thousands of photos, shown in multiple galleries and filled our homes with her incredible work.

This past Saturday was the opening of what I would consider her greatest show. After years of avoiding taking photos of herself, she put together an entire collection of self-portraits entirely through shadow work.

Her opening comes at a bittersweet time considering her recent CJD diagnosis. Given the disease’s progressive nature, this will likely be her last show. I feel grateful that it is one that finally features herself.

Since most of you aren’t able to visit her work in person, I thought I would share a virtual gallery of her show. It feels extra fitting because this show is psychologically themed and we worked together to come up with all the titles over one hilarious phone call a few months ago.

So without further ado, here is my mom’s artist statement followed by show.

Ruth Raskin’s MY SHADOW SELF:

Carl Jung coined the term The Shadow Self in 1912. In psychology it refers to a person’s dark, repressed side—those parts of ourselves we don’t want to acknowledge much less reveal to other people. For my show, The Shadow Self is a way for me, a camera-shy photographer, to avoid more classic self-portraits while sharing something (but not too much) about myself. In this exhibit I invite the viewer to interpret what I am disclosing and what I am hiding in these dark, sometimes cryptic, sometimes lighthearted, photographs.

AVOIDANT

COUPLES THERAPY

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

ACROPHOBIA

COGNITIVE DISTORTION

DEFENSE MECHANISM

BAGGAGE

BODY DYSMORPHIA

DELUSIONS

JOHARI WINDOW - KNOWN TO SELF

EXTERNALIZING THE PROBLEM

SELF ACTUALIZATION

JOHARI WINDOW - UNKNOWN TO OTHERS

JOHARI WINDOW - KNOWN TO OTHERS

JOHARI WINDOW - UNKNOWN TO SELF

PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

THE HALO EFFECT

THE SUBCONSCIOUS

NIGHT TERRORS

WORD SOUP

GENERATIONAL TRAUMA

FRAGMENTED SENSE OF SELF

REALITY TESTING

VICTIM MENTALITY

STRUCTURAL OPRESSION

REPRESSED MEMORIES

RESISTANT TO TREATMENT

INNER CHILD

TRIANGULATION

TRANSFERENCE

RUPTURE

****

I have always heard that when people are nearing the end of their life they never care about how much they worked. But I think that is different for artists. While I can’t control CJD, I can continue to spread my mother’s work and keep her unique point of view alive.

If you are interested in purchasing a print, you can contact The Mamaroneck Artist’s Guild.

And to view more of her work, you can check out her website.

xoxo,

Allison

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