Raven B. Varona celebrates mother-daughter bonds

Varona jokes that “Mom,Me” is an embodiment of the “your mom’s just a girl” meme and to some extent she’s proper. At first look, the work is relational, documenting how moms and daughters join and spend time collectively, whereas offering visible proof of how every technology bodily imprints onto the subsequent. Push deeper and an intricate internet of connections between motherhood and womanhood begins to disclose itself. “As you get older, your relationship with your mother changes,” says Varona. “Regardless of what that bond looked like when you were young, it shifts. You begin to see her multitudes, realizing that she is also a woman, who makes mistakes and is just figuring life out, just like you.” 

What began as an area to launch grief turned Varona’s best private {and professional} affirmation. In following her intuition to maneuver between varieties, she unravelled one thing extra pressing, emotional and true. “Initially, when I lost my mom, you have all these big feelings, but over time you begin to unlock these little survival strategies, cultivating things inside yourself that you used to seek out in someone else,” she says. “I’ve alchemised that energy in an empowering way, and in return, I feel closer to my mom.”