Jamie Diamond: Monstra Te Esse Matrem, 2026

All of us play roles every day. For some, that role is “mother.” But no person inhabits a single role, and no person can play their roles perfectly at all times. 

When she was eight years old, Gardner Artist-in-Residence Jamie Diamond witnessed her own mother's mask slip. This drove Diamond to write a letter to herself, outlining what kind of mother she would be. That letter marked the beginning of her engagement with the subject of motherhood, idealized and often removed from everyday reality.

Diamond’s work for the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade, outside of the Gardner Museum, is the latest manifestation of this exploration. In Monstra Te Esse Matrem (show yourself to be a mother), Diamond, now a mother herself, challenges the romanticization of motherhood with an image that is both self-portrait and fantasy, asking: what does it mean to be a mother?