Conversations With My Mother: Narrative Sculptures

Wrapping emotion, memory and narrative into a set of living sculptures, artist Elissa Farrow-Savos creates an exhibit about the shared experience of womanhood for "Conversations With My Mother," on display at The Art League Gallery in the Torpedo Factory Art Center through May 28.

"Every piece I make is about storytelling, each a narrative of some woman somewhere, and every woman everywhere," Farrow-Savos writes on her website. For "Conversations With My Mother," she starts with sayings from her mother, bringing them to life through found objects — such as toys and wood and metal artifacts — and figures made from polymer clay and layers of oil paint.

Titles such as You'll grow into it and Why not the moon? hint at the common childhood experiences behind the artwork. The titles and the sculptures play off each other, adding meaning to familiar phrases: Please do not push my buttons today, for example, includes typewriter keys embedded in the front and back of the forlorn-looking figure's torso.

This is Farrow-Savos' first solo show at The Art League Gallery, which showcases work from local artists with monthly group and solo exhibits. The gallery is on the first floor of the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria.