Froot Loops Loop

Froot Loops Loop is a work in progress made during my MFA at Emily Carr that complicates and questions the drudgery of care labor. Caring for children is work, even though it encompasses more than toil. Mothering is a labor of love, but we only use that phrase when the compensation does not measure up to the effort the job takes.
The full source film, captured on Black Magic camera by fellow MFA student Andrew Ina, is of pouring Froot Loops and milk into a bowl, with my son then eating the Froot Loops until the bowl is empty.
The finished Risograph printed work will have this cycle loop repeatedly. Risograph printing represents care labor materially. The Riso creates prints using colour separation and halftone patterning, which evokes the nostalgia and bright colours of childhood - both mine in the 1970s and my children’s. The magic of making work about invisible care labour is that the further I move into material experiments, the more the drudgery gets transformed into play!

I did my BFA in the late 1990s, and at that time, animation hadn’t expanded into galleries and other fine art arenas. I am so glad that terms like high art and low art, or even craft, are being deconstructed. Animation feels fresh in spaces like the gallery, and it makes me feel hopeful that exhibitions like Animation as Art are happening.
My process is a learning process, and I look forward to continuing that learning. I try and choose materials best suited to the subject matter. Now that my practice is responding to motherhood, I use materials that might not be conventional for artmaking.