Meet our Mama's Day Artists!

Mama's Day Our Way is Strong Families' unique and powerful Mother's Day celebration where we highlight mamas and aspects of motherhood that are not usually visible in the greeting card aisles. Our e-cards represent the diversity of parenting and make important political statements by showing queer, single, trans, immigrant, and incarcerated mamas as loving caretakers.

Spanning from the emerging to the established, 19 artists were selected for the diversity of motherhood imagery they would bring to the campaign. Oakland based artist, Melanie Cervantes says that the e-cards will help “communities see themselves in a popular format.” While Kirbieleya Platero, a single parent, says that  the cards will “present a different aspect of motherhood, or a glimpse of what institutions don't understand about being a parent, better yet a young single parent.”

In addition to shifting the narrative of motherhood, the cards are also a way for the artists to honor the mothers in their own families. Donna Choi’s work celebrates  “the hard-working immigrant mamas of my friends and family members.” Julio Salgado’s submission  pays “homage to our parents, who don't fit America's idea of what they are supposed to look like, love like or be like.” In the same vein, Chucha Marquez speaks to the aspect of representing the ways that we create families to survive  as a queer person color: “My chosen family has been there for me during times in which I couldn't go to my birth mother or "biological" family.”

The Mamas Day e-card series “beautifully embod[ies] the politic of Strong Families: that "All Families Matter" (Michah Bazant) and lets mamas of all background know that “its alright to be who they are; not only that but that they should be celebrated too” (Robert Trujilio).

Check out all of the participating artists at: http://artists.mamasday.org/