SARAH SHOTTS
My Brain on Motherhood, Sarah Shotts, Film, 24 sec, 2022
A flipbox sits on a white table. A white hand reaches into frame and turns the handle. Cards flip animating a child's corn popper toy. Colored balls pop into the air and fall back down repeatedly as the handle is turned. The hand stops and leaves the frame. The cards fall into a still image.
My work is deeply rooted in neurodivergence and my identity as an autistic mother. I often find verbal language to be inadequate and turn to imagery and metaphor to describe my lived experience. I dance between different mediums pulling from those that best express my inner landscape. My work encompasses traditional handcraft, which connects me to past generations, and emerging technologies, which tether me to the future. My art practice also plays an important social function by contributing to the growing neurodiversity movement.
Sarah Shotts (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist and nonbinary mother. Shotts earned their Masters degree in Applied Drama from Goldsmiths University of London. Their undergraduate studies included both Fine and Performing Arts at Mississippi University for Women (MUW.) Shotts is now an instructor of theatre at MUW where they have been teaching for ten years.