Immortality Monument, Alta View Women's Center

We are up and running again!

Promoting myself isn’t something that I’ve ever been comfortable doing, and even though this isn’t entirely about me, in a small way it is. I’m promoting something beautiful, thought provoking and life changing, and it has to do with all women.

 

Immortality is a statue that Michael Aaron Hall created while exploring the decisions women make regarding childbirth. This is a subject I feel strongly about, especially since I’ve experienced so many different emotions regarding pregnancy, childbirth, and loss.

From everything I’d been told growing up, pregnancy was a magical feeling, wonderful and precious. I didn’t understand the dark side of pregnancy; the throwing up, the constant ache, and the incredible depression you may get postpartum.

At eight and a half months pregnant I was swollen and huge and I didn’t feel pretty at all. I had morning sickness with all five of my pregnancies, one so bad that I had to go to the hospital to be re-hydrated. My last pregnancy was uncomfortable almost all of the time. I felt ugly and enormous, and yet, I don’t really want to be finished. I would like another child. It's almost destroyed me as I try to figure out what to do.

 

I lost two pregnancies between my second and third child. It was hard. It was difficult. And for one of them I wasn’t at home when it happened. I felt alone and so unexpectedly sad that I was afraid for myself. I didn’t think my odds of miscarriage were very good since my own mother never had one, but I dealt with two of them. Do you really think I was ready to jump into pregnancy again after miscarrying a second time?

Art was one of the best therapies I had. I’m lucky to be married to an artist. I would sit and watch my husband create these beautiful figures, and somehow that helped me get through my grief. It gave me hope for myself and others, and I want to share the empathy and compassion this sculpture has to offer.

What are we, as women, facing in today’s pressured world? Do we have time for children? Will we be able tot adopt if we want to? Are we going to be able to support them once they get here? There are so many factors now, things I never thought about or took into consideration before getting pregnant with my first child. And although things usually seem to work out in the end, there’s always that nagging fear that they won’t.

There are different reasons we want or don’t want to have children. I have a strong relationship with my husband, and I know that when we have a child that we are both in it together. We know what it takes – the restless nights, the constant diaper changes, and the sacrifice of most of our free time. We may not understand what others are going through in their lives and circumstances, but this is our opportunity to try.

 

Immortality will be a life-size sculpture in bronze. The first step in this process is to get the piece created. We are looking at several different places that would be a possible home for the sculpture. Personally I would like to see it at a hospital or women’s center. If you have any thoughts or ideas about the statue itself or where you would like to see something like this located, share them with us.

Thank you for stopping by and reading, and if you feel as impassioned by this as I do, feel free to share our link at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/945510695/immortality-monument-for-alta-view-hospital.

For more information about the artist, please visit www.michaelaaronhall.com