Artist Statement
Project Overview
This artist statement explores identity, motherhood, and personal duality through poetic language and metaphor. The original draft contained strong emotional insight but was dense, abstract, and difficult for readers to navigate—particularly those encountering the work without prior context.
The goal of the edit was to clarify meaning while preserving the artist’s voice and emotional complexity.
My Role (Editorial Focus)
I provided developmental and line editing to surface the central thesis, restructure the narrative for emotional clarity, and refine language for flow and readability. The focus was on helping readers follow the artist’s ideas without simplifying or neutralizing the work’s poetic tone.
Editorial Challenges Addressed
Clarifying abstract and emotionally layered concepts without over-explaining
Preserving the artist’s voice while improving structure and pacing
Separating intertwined ideas (external vs. internal conflict) so readers could follow the argument
Strengthening rhythm and transitions without flattening metaphor or ambiguity
Why This Sample Matters
This piece demonstrates my approach to editing creative work: honoring voice, sharpening meaning, and improving reader comprehension without rewriting the artist’s intent. It shows how developmental editing can make deeply personal, abstract writing more accessible while preserving its emotional and artistic integrity.
Before:
What I didn’t know before becoming a single mom:
The Conflict to the outside world in us existing independently as a mom as well as the internal conflict of living in the world without our child creates layers in self, in reality, and in the fabric of life within ourselves. We find ourselves forcing calm breaths to sooth our children and forcing calm breathes to reenter the world without them. Turning off and on parts of who we are becomes unnaturally comfortable like riding under 14 million gallons of east river water for a daily commute. I started these portraits in 2019 intentionally choosing photos of my subjects that were captured in a moment of the person outside of being a mother. Whether this is true is up to the photographer i suppose but to me I saw my friends who I bonded with through this split reality. Forced new realities allowing new perspectives on creating layers of judgements realized and new judgements placed. Words spoken to me and from me about a single mother frame a photo I took of myself as I battled with my insecurities and a position I didn’t know.
After:
What I didn’t know before becoming a single mom:
When you become a single mom, you enter into a world of duality, of existential conflict.
There’s a conflict with the outside world in simply existing independently as a mom. Then, there’s an internal conflict of living in the world without our child.
This tension creates layers in self, in reality, and in the fabric of life within ourselves.
We find ourselves forcing calm breaths to soothe our children, then forcing calm breaths to soothe ourselves as we re-enter the world without them, as autonomous people.
Over time turning off and on these parts of who we are becomes unnaturally comfortable… not unlike riding under 14 million gallons of east river water for a daily commute.
I started these portraits in 2019, choosing photos of my subjects outside the duties of motherhood, as the friends I bonded with through the tension of our shared split reality of being moms.