Shelly Pearce - Henry

Graphite pencil on paper

Not For Sale

This drawing began with a 3D ultrasound image of my son before I had ever held him. Looking at his face, with the umbilical cord curled around him and his hand so closely raised in front of his face, I could see how completely enclosed he was within me—tucked tightly inside, protected and held in absolute security. There was something comforting about seeing him so snug and completely contained within the safety of my body. Before home was a house, a room or a physical place, I was his home, and as I looked at this ultrasound image I felt an immediate pull to draw it. The work reflects on home as our first experience of belonging. There is a sense of safety and connection that exists before we can understand it, name it or remember it. In this sense, home is not simply somewhere we live, but our earliest experience of being held, protected and connected to another.