You may already be familiar with McKay Lenker Bayer, or at least with her creative mind. She’s the one who decided you should get on your hands and knees with a magnifying glass to look at really small versions of art. What began as a class assignment, and became a way for the artist to overcome her own apprehension about exhibiting her paintings, turned into The Tiny Art Show—a project that exploded in the year before the pandemic. It became a phenomenon, especially in Utah County, popping up in places as varied as museums and utility boxes, and often included playful elements like equally tiny refreshments. In Mere Maison, her exhibition now up at Writ and Vision, she’s thinking again about tiny wonders and transforming spaces, but in a much more personal way.

“You are your baby’s home,” is what Bayer’s prenatal yoga teacher told her when she became pregnant in 2021. It was a time filled with expectation but also, after a previous miscarriage, trepidation. Returning to art-making after the successful birth of her son in 2022, she began reflecting on the ideas kindled in those prenatal classes. As the baby grows, so does its home, and motherhood becomes an adaptive, nurturing experience.

The resulting work, first debuted at a JKR Gallery exhibition last March and now given full form at Writ and Vision, envisions the mother’s body as a home, adorned with intricate details and vibrant, thoughtful patterns. These houses are not seen just as architectural forms, but as living, nurturing entities, paralleling the nurturing role of a mother. In these skillfully crafted works, the artist draws inspiration from two distinct yet interconnected sources: the depiction of pregnancy in art history by artists who are mothers, and traditionally feminine forms of art-making like stitching, quilting, and weaving. (A wall of the exhibition is full of images and post-it notes that diagram the relationships at work in the exhibit.) These elements are thoughtfully integrated into her houses, where the repetitive and meticulous nature of feminine crafts mirrors the often unseen and undervalued labor of motherhood. The use of mixed media in her work adds layers of texture and depth, making each house a unique story and symbol of maternal sacrifice and care.

Emerging from the bottom of each house are a pair of legs, suggesting that the homes are ambulatory, transformed from static structures into dynamic, nurturing entities that embody the role of the mother. (In a comic note, the legs are widely spaced, suggesting the not-always-graceful process of moving the house around.) The artist powerfully symbolizes how mothers are both protectors and facilitators of growth, providing the safety and warmth of a home while actively navigating the journey of motherhood. These feet suggest that the home, like the mother, is always on the move, adapting and evolving to meet the changing needs of the growing child.

“Each of these houses is a tribute,” the artist says, “a small monument to the act of creating and nurturing life and all the complexities that come with it.”

Mere Maison, Writ and Vision Gallery, Provo, through June 29

All images courtesy of the artist

Shawn Rossiter

The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.