Brown tissue packing paper, metal and wooden hoops. The nested circles were a shape that came to me often in the first months of parenthood as I encircled my newborn's round body with mine. I did try to make this piece while she rolled around next to me, enjoying the crinkling of the paper. I believed it best for her to see my whole self as an artist and a mother and ached to be in both facets of myself. She disagreed and preferred to have her whole mother at the time, and she was right; the piece took me another year to complete. The title comes from another nested circle: my young self who, when my own parents would ask “Do you want me to hold you?” would reply, arms up, with “Hold you!” This is one of a series of pieces made on metal hoops salvaged from a bar cart, broken and abandoned in the woods. Diameter 39 cm (15.5 in.) Thickness 2 cm (0.75 in.)
