My mother constantly told me in my adult years that she had unconditional love for me "but", which is not unconditional love. The word “but” actually translates it to conditional love

This fabric painting is created on and around a linen cross stitch embroidery I found at her house a number of years ago, when I emptied and sold it to help her finance living in assisted living after she broke her hip.

I don’t know who made the embroidery. It was meticulously sewn and was made by someone with a lot of patience. Something my mother did not have, especially when interacting with me.

The monoprinted construction fence fabric, that is machine appliquéd around the embroidery, represents the boundaries I had to make in our relationship to protect myself.