BACKGROUND

I created MOMO as a sculpture, a soft and comforting companion in response to an abruptly vacated, empty nest. My youngest child, then a teenager, left home under wholly difficult and dramatic circumstances. In the most foolish of over-simplifications, I remember telling people that I made MOMO as a dinner table companion. Someone gave me this photograph (photographer unknown) and suggested that I investigate doll cultures, past and present. Looking at the photograph, I was cognizant of the fact that my loss was quite different than this woman’s. Our only commonality lay in the designing of a source of comfort that made our private loss public. Though her culture’s custom signaled a more somber loss, it nonetheless represented a starting point for me.