I’m certainly not the first artist to make art about motherhood, and as I embark on my new project I find myself returning to a few images.

First, Edvard Munch’s Madonna. Oh yes, the man painted things other than “The Scream.” This is one of my favorite paintings ever and I even wrote a whole term paper on it in my sophomore year of college.

First intriguing part of this painting is the title. “Madonna” usually is in reference to “Madonna and Child,” being Mary and Jesus. It’s rather interesting that in Western art the female nude and the mother image are completely separate. You have your nudes, and you have your mother and child and never the twain shall meet. Not only that, but the usual “mother and child” image that we see in Western art is of a virgin! What a weird dichotomy – the mother most painted in our culture is the only one who didn’t have sex to produce her child. Mary might as well have been a never-nude.

And here, we have a Madonna in the nude. A very sexual Madonna.

And what is WITH that fetus in the corner? He looks concerned. Is this a piece about abortion/miscarriage and this fetus has already died? Is this fetus currently residing in her uterus looking out at her from the inside? There’s very little context and its placement offers no clues. And that expression! Such concern in stark contrast to the ecstatic look on Madonna’s face!

(Also: No idea what is with those sperm in the border, but it certainly implies that this Madonna is no virgin.)

Henry Ford Hospital by Frida Kahlo.

Frida is more known for her more… upbeat… self-portraits. But her life was anything from upbeat. Her traumatic bus injury is fairly well known, as is the fact that she often painted from bed in a full body cast. Less well known is that as a result of this injury, her uterus was scarred and she was unable to carry a pregnancy to term. She suffered several miscarriages, the one being depicted here was in her second trimester while she was living in Detroit while her husband, Diego Rivera, was working on a commissioned mural.

Frida very, very much wanted to be a mother and her miscarriages tore her apart. For her, art was a release of her pain – mental and physical – and her paintings, while bright in color, often had dark and gritty elements. This one is absolutely beautiful, but also haunting. She doesn’t shy away from showing her bleeding, her body broken by tragedy, the dead fetus floating above her.

Ok, a bit dark, but inspiring nonetheless. It’s an amazing depiction of an experience many women have. As a culture we forget that women who have lost babies are mothers too and this painting is a clear reminder of that. Not every woman’s experience of motherhood is going to be joyful, sometimes it rips you apart.