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In 1983 I gave birth to my first son. During my pregnancy I wanted to avoid toxic art materials and began painting with egg tempera.

I gave birth to a series of painted mandalas that were gently worked by hand against my gestating belly with seeds, grass, feathers, sticks, bones and bits of colored glass.

Reworked and nurtured for years, the mandalas obtained a soft patina as they were handled. Finally in 1995 I stitched them to fabric backgrounds, added final embellishments and boxed them for exhibition.

The imagery is meditative and spiritual. I alternatively call them mandalas or shields. They are images of identity and protection.