Tricia Wallace

Meet Tricia Wallace: collage artist, screen printer and more

From:
Coeur d’Alene, now State College, PA

Medium:
Screen Printing/ collage. Sometimes painting/ drawing/ whatever. I dabble quite a bit.

Images © Patricia Wallace. Reproduced by permission.

Q&A with Patricia Wallace

What inspired you to create this piece?

I've got two pieces I'm attaching below that I'd love to donate to the project. I created the first collage (I'll provide a print of the collage) "Where's Mom?" in Moscow, Idaho in 2012 the year after my first daughter was born. It just sort of came out of me and had several names before I settled on the final title.

The second piece is called "Armor Up". The screen print is based on an earlier collage I created in 2022. Both pieces were featured in a similar event here in State College called "Bloodlines." Which was a collection of women/ non-binary folks performing essays/ poems/ etc. related to their reproductive experience (including postpartum psychosis, abortion, being a mother, etc. That project continues here in State College.) Bloodlines also included a related art exhibit centered around the same themes. I performed a piece/ poem called "Where's Mom? / The Artwork that was Never Made" as well as had these two pieces in the art show.

Here are the explanations of the art pieces that I wrote for "Bloodlines".

“Where’s Mom” - 2012

This piece was created 9 months after my first child was born, during the always fleeting quiet of nap time. The figure of the woman is clipped from a 1960's magazine ad for a stovetop range measured to fit you “just right”. To me, she asks: Where is mom? What is mom? Who is mom? Is she a role? Is she tasks and care work? Is she love? What are the labors of love? Are maintenance tasks and care work love? Is "mom" somewhere else? Outside, beneath or above her roles and tasks? Who is mom? Who was she before motherhood? Who is she now? Where is mom?

“Armor Up” - 2022

The clipping of this women comes from a 1960s McCall’s ad for bras. To me, her pointed boobs hoisted into a likely very uncomfortable bra and defiant expression speaks to the emotional, physical, and logistical armor that women must wear to move through the world. At the same time, she points to a fresh need to armor up, once again, in defense of a woman’s basic right to her own body.

She asks: what armor am I wearing today? What armor needs to fall away? What armor needs to be put on? She is the paradox of power and vulnerability held between two laser boobs.

What’s your background and what led you to become an artist?

I was born and raised in CDA, Idaho and have always been a maker and artist. I can’t remember a time my life when I wasn’t drawing, tinkering, and crafting in one way or another. I just like to make things. I continued to pursue the art bug in college [and] graduated with a BFA in Graphic Designs from Boston University in 2005. I have three magical daughters and live with my family in State College, PA where I’m a stay at home mom/ graphic designer/ artist/ screen printer/ diy-er/ general dabbler in many many things. The amount of art I’ve been able to make over time has ebbed and flowed depending on the busyness of life, but I’ve always been tried to carve out a little time to create and express myself whether through making a big collage or just painting a wall a new color. As my kids have grown I’ve been working on making my art more public and continuing to pursue my art/ craft as time allows.

How long have you been making art?

Since always. Haha. I’ve always loved making things, drawing, crafting, collaging. Etc. I think making is a fundamentally human impulse that most people tend to do in one way or another. I’ll add that I don’t really draw a hard line between art & craft & making of any kind. I come from a long line of makers who sewed/ cooked/ gardened/ built things and expressed themselves in a million different ways. I like to think we all bring artfulness and creativity to life in one way or another.

What motivates you, or inspires your art?

I feel like a bit of a broken record but I think I’m most motivated by the simple need & desire to make things. Making things and expressing myself feels like a basic need for my own well being that at times has been hard to make time & space for. I have an assortment of random skills and techniques that I’ve acquired over the years… I’d say I’m a “Jane of all trades master of none” type of person and I tend to bounce around from medium to medium. I love to dabble and am probably often motived by the simple desire to try and learn something new. Out of this impulse comes a love for bringing different materials together. I tend to gravitate towards assemblage/ collage/ mixed media. Currently I’ve been really engaged in learning screen printing.

I am inspired by everything of course! Nature, art, books, poetry, textiles, interiors, everything! My daughters are also a huge inspiration. Particularly in the fearlessness, curiosity and wonder that kids often express in their early childhood.

Are there specific experiences and themes you explore in your art?

A lot of my current inspiration is born out of exploring the roles women are expected to play vs. who we truly are, especially in the realm of motherhood and my own personal experience as a mother. What gets elevated? What gets buried? What must be learned? what must be suppressed? When and Why? Who does it serve (I think we know the answer to that one!)?

As I said above I found a lot of inspiration from caring for my own amazing girls. There was something beautiful and important for me to experience in my toddler kids boldly throwing a fit and declaring their own person hood (“I used to scream ferociously anytime I wanted anything”… Taylor Swift’s “Seven” often comes to mind when I think of this!). The piece “Where’s Mom?” was a place I really flushed out this idea a bit… When I first made it I really didn’t know what it was about for sure… and now my response is really pointing to how, at the same time I was losing myself in many ways to the relentless work of motherhood, that my own personhood was also being reflected back to me (very forcefully! Haha!) through the daily struggles of trying to get my 3-4 year old to do anything!

I’m also deeply invested in how we view care as a society… how we view the people who need care (which is always always all of us, despite what our individualistic culture wants us to believe right now) and the people who do the care work (which is often invisible). I want to try to make the invisible labors of care more visible. Angela Garbes’ book “Essential Labor” was really influential for me.

I’m also interested in the questions and interplay between the artwork and the viewer. When I’m making a piece I’m usually engaging with some kind of question with myself (whether I’m aware of it at the time or not). I love how we all bring our own stories and aesthetics to art and how the meaning can change from person to person. Each person connects differently to a piece (or maybe even not at all). And while I think often people may connect and interpret similar themes from a piece, it probably equally as likely that someone could pull something very different from my intention and that’s great! My own experiences viewing art (even of my own making) also change over time. I made “Where’s Mom?” 12 years ago after my first kid was born and the way I meet it as a 42 year old mother of 3 is much different than how I met and interpreted it as a 29 year old mother a 9 month year old. How delightful we people are!

I also just love to make things and really really love to crack myself up.

Why is this movement important to you?

The Pro-Voice Project is important to me because women's rights and healthcare are so blatantly under attack again. I believe gathering in community, sharing stories and art are so important in helping our communities find their way back to each other. It is important to me to support the artists and speakers who are willing to share themselves with others so that my daughters can see modeled for them an infinite number of ways of being and moving through the world. Telling the truth and asking thoughtful questions and holding space for others' stories is how we make room for everyone's stories and experiences and how we increase our collective support and compassion for everyone. Stories & art are how we can know we're not alone. They are a conduit for connection and community and understanding.

Tricia Wallace is a designer/ maker/ mother trying to put some beauty, joy, and humor into this world . Tricia was born and raised in CDA, Idaho and has a BFA in graphic design from Boston University. She currently lives in State College, PA where she spends her days caring for her family, making stuff and generally puttering around.