D.C. artist Rebecca Perez champions motherhood and mental health in her deeply personal work
By hola | Published | No Comments
Rebecca Perez’s art reflects her deeply personal experiences, blending motherhood, trauma and cultural identity. A D.C.-based artist with Puerto Rican roots, Perez’s artwork channels the challenges of raising two children while healing from the loss of her mother at a young age.
Through her art, she copes and hopes to connect with others — mothers, people facing depression and those recovering from difficult childbirths — who may see themselves in her journey. Originally from New York City, Perez also infuses Boricua art influences into her art, making her pieces both intimate and broadly resonant.
One notable element in her work is la bata, Puerto Rican slang for the traditionally worn dressing gown. La bata carries deep sentimental value for many Boricuas, as this dress has been used by working-class Puerto Rican mothers, aunts, and grandmothers for day-to-day tasks. Through her work, Perez reflects on the immigrant experience, the evolution of language across generations and the shifting dynamics of heritage.
In an interview with Hola Cultura, Perez shares personal artistic obstacles and creative breakthroughs, as well as her journey with therapy that has influenced her artistic path. Therapy has taught her to channel pain into her artwork in a way she says brings out authentic emotions. Perez shares techniques such as drawing organic shapes, circles, and squiggly lines to express these emotions. Therapy and art have helped her embrace vulnerability, strengthening her artistic voice, she says.
She has also found invaluable support in the artistic community around her. She notes that one of the great things about D.C. is its size. It’s small enough to foster strong, close-knit networks, yet big enough to feel like you’re making meaningful progress.
Your art is mainly focused on the motherhood journey. How do you show it in your art?
I spent a lot of years with depression and PTSD, and I never sought help or anything. When I became a mom, I realized that I had to heal myself in order to be the parent that I wanted to be. I started becoming more comfortable exploring my own trauma through my work. I’ve met other mothers who have had various traumatic issues, or maybe traumatic childbirths. I feel like as moms and as parents, you celebrate all your child’s milestones and developments, and you have pictures and the photo albums and everything … but rarely do mothers take the time to celebrate their own journeys — who they were before and who they are during motherhood. You’re constantly evolving and trying to adapt and provide for your child. That requires you to adapt and change and provide for yourself. So it’s being comfortable exploring my issues and my pain with art that has helped me become a better parent. I also want moms to take the time to put something on their walls or surround their home with things that represent them and not just their children.
Can you share a moment or project where you felt you had a major creative breakthrough?
When I went back to my idea of trauma, I started researching psychology, reading a lot of sociology books and learning how much the body changes when you go through trauma. Trauma changes everything. Your brain chemistry, how your heart functions and your cell development. That brought me a lot of visuals. I was looking at pictures of organs and blood cells. I started to paint all of these things, sometimes realistically, sometimes very abstractly. But that was a major breakthrough through the work I was doing now. Once I became comfortable, because what I was exploring was deep, I thought, what are people going to think? Am I ready to show my work? Do I even want to go embrace this myself? Once I became comfortable with the scary aspect of it, I felt like all the doors were opened. It allowed me to talk about my art in a way that I had never really felt comfortable talking about it. It allowed me to show it more and connect more with other people who have had painful experiences in the past.
How have you been experimenting with Latinidad within your artwork?
I’m doing a whole new series based on la Bata, which is a house dress, right? I have a bunch that I can show; my abuela wore one of my pieces. My abuela wore one, my tias wore them, everybody had one of these on as they’re cleaning, cooking, and doing all these things. I realized I missed seeing this dresswear. I didn’t know anybody in my life in DC who wore one. This made me lose the connection I had at home. I wanted to paint one to bring the sense back. I did a little illustration, a realistic type of illustration, years ago. This idea wouldn’t leave me alone. I kept telling myself I have to do something with la bata, it’s calling me. Then I went back to New York one time and bought a whole bunch in the store. I brought them here and started cutting them up and painting on them, and doing all kinds of things. That’s where my work is currently headed. It’s combining motherhood, but also culture, with my project with la bata. It’s combining the immigration experience, the language loss or gain and how things change between generations. As I show the work to other people, not just from Latin countries, but also from the American South, the Caribbean and even Europe, they always tell me that their grandmother wore one of those. They had a specific name for it, too. Every little group has a name for it. So it’s been exciting to see that. For me, it’s very personal. But, as the saying goes, the personal is universal. It brings me joy knowing other people can look at it and see themselves in their own experience.
How do you think mental health is in Modern-Day society in the context of the Latine community?
In general, where mental health is now, it’s something that’s talked about especially with younger generations. People talk about it on TV, in movies and on social media. I was born in 1975. The only people who went to therapists were crazy or were White and rich. I didn’t have anyone that I could go to and say, “I need help.” Not that my family wouldn’t have helped me, but that language didn’t exist. I feel like now, people can say it more, even in the Latino communities, because Gen Y and the millennials are holding their parents and the grandparents accountable.
What are some of the challenges people face when trying to access mental health care? What alternatives or resources exist?
Access to therapists is still very difficult. A lot of insurance doesn’t cover therapy, or it covers very minimally. And therapists are expensive. A lot of them don’t even take insurance. So there’s a barrier, a financial barrier, that has to be acknowledged. With that said, there’s also online therapy. Some apps may not be as effective as having a one-on-one conversation with someone, like in person, but that is a level of help or care that someone can receive. But there are a lot more resources like hotlines to call. I think college campuses are now really good at having a mental health specialist or clinic of some kind. It’s still difficult because there’s a financial barrier, and a lot of times there’s a cultural barrier.
If you’re bilingual, Spanish-speaking or Afro Latino, it helps to have a therapist who looks like you, who has the same experiences as you, so that you don’t have to translate how racism has affected you, or whatever the case may be. There are fewer Afro Latino and Latino therapists, obviously, but they exist. So I think if someone needs help, or is trying to find help for someone else, they have to be diligent about using all their power to research.
I would just say try not to give up, keep asking for help and keep looking for resources. Eventually, you’ll find someone who can help, even if it’s just a book. So there are lots of ways to help. Making art helps; any kind of art doesn’t have to be good. You can dance, you can sing, you can write little plays and poems that you don’t show anybody. All those things help. Moving your body helps, too.
Perez has released the premiere issue of her art and literature journal, Tendrils, titled “Trauma and the Body.” To explore or purchase the issue, visit tendrilsjournal.com.
– Story by Amy Arias
– Copy edited by Kami Waller
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