The Infertility Project: Press
“Rachel Weingarten, PARADE Magazine (Readership 54 Million)
... Artist Robbi Firestone who also has a series of private galleries that include her astoundingly vivid portraits of Maasai tribe members and an installation called The Empty Womb which deals with her infertility issues. The small rooms contain everything from hypodermic needles and other medical paraphernalia from Firestone’s own in-vitro journey, to sweetly crocheted baby clothes that will never be worn. If art is emotion on canvas, Firestone’s Empty Womb exhibit is a ragged cry of pain and acceptance.”
Museum Reviews
New Mexico Museum of Art
Dear Robbi,
“…the thank you goes to you for the invitation to see your installation in progress. It was generous of you to share, and your openness and vulnerability in sharing is noted and commended. You are telling a powerful story, and I think you will find, like Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party, this project may take on a life of its own and take years to unfold…”
My Best,
Merry Scully
Head of Curatorial Affairs
Curator of Contemporary Art
New Mexico Museum of Art
CREATIVE SANTA FE
Robbi, your work is courageous, thoughtful, painstaking and heartfelt. I am humbled by your vulnerability and passion. I must admit I was rendered a bit speechless by the raw passion and pain of all you have experienced as well as the scope of the project and its impact. I look forward to speaking with you in more detail about the project and where it’s headed. Congratulations, Robbi. It is a remarkable project. Thank you for including me yesterday.
Much love,
Cindy Conn,
Executive Director
Creative Santa Fe
NATIONAL MUSEUM of WOMEN in the ARTS
Dear Robbi, I would like to thank you on behalf of the members of our Board who attended your moving presentation yesterday. You are a testament to the power of transforming personal pain and loss into a benefit for the greater good…
Eva Borins
President
New Mexico Chapter, National Museum for Women in the Arts
Museum of International Folk Art
Thank you, Robbi. Your work is so moving because it is not only deeply personal and explores a “ taboo” subject, but also because it is so universal to women everywhere. Made me realize how from the “privileged” woman who can even hope to try IVF to the checker at K-Mart, the pain of infertility is the same. And how we always need to remember in every interaction we have we can never know what personal trauma is being faced by the person we come into contact with…
I will be thinking about your work and you deeply and will hope that it gets the public attention it deserves.
Warmly,
Charlene Cerny
Director; Museum of International Folk Art
Santa Fe, NM
Voices from Visitors: Public Reception
23 Jan, 2017
Robbi -
Hello you, thank you for sending me the link to the sneak preview I cannot tell you the emotions that I feel knowing I am part of your circle. As for the preview what a message this is going touch or connect with those who know you and see this. You have always had this way to connect to those around in so many ways, and this is just one of those ways. Love the attitude and just the edge that with compelling those to look deep into oneself.
I get it; it does not matter how you awake those to pay attention to the message it is only that it does. If you know it or not you are a minister in your own way thank you for always being in that truth and understanding it and showing up for not only you but those around you.
- Burney Campbell
Seattle WA
15 Jan, 2017
Hi Robbi,
Thank you for sending. What you are doing is important, because I think a lot of people don’t understand the huge significance of these issues for women.
In particular, I don’t think a lot of people understand how incredibly devastating a miscarriage is. They can actually be pretty insensitive on that topic.
I applaud you for bringing these emotional topics to light.
Good luck with it, and I hope to see you again sometime, if I come to Santa Fe.
Kind regards,
Amy Lamborn
Translator & Paralegal
15 Jan, 2017
You are amazing, Robbi – very powerful and authentic, clear and determined as to the need for The Empty Womb yet touchingly vulnerable, compelling and intimate. Thanks for sending it my way. Can’t wait to see the film.
Thank you for allowing us to share in your moving/powerful artistic, healing experience. It takes determined inner strength to lay it on the line like you have done. All I can say is BRAVA, dear Robbi, BRAVA!
- Bill Miller
Chairman and Treasurer of the Creative Santa Fe Board of Directors
President of Miller Strategic Consulting, LLC (MSC).
17 Sep, 2016
Hi Robbi,
I want to thank you again for opening your exhibit and yourself to me and my fellow Committee members. Seeing, hearing and experiencing your heart’s work continues to have a powerful, lingering effect. Here is the poem I mentioned finding a very long time ago in an article in a women’s magazine written by a woman recounting the stillbirth of her child. It is called “A Leave Taking,” by Yvor Winters (1900-1968):
I, who never kissed your head,
Lay these ashes in their bed;
That which I could do have done.
Now farewell, my newborn son.
At the time, I had never even been pregnant; yet I found the poem such a haunting expression of sorrow and grief that I memorized it. Many years later, I reflected on it often as I coped with the miscarriage of my second child just as I was entering the second trimester of pregnancy. Seeing your work brought back the poem and the strong sense of these same emotions.
I look forward to seeing the trailer when it’s ready.
Kind regards,
Nancy A. Baker
Santa Fe, New Mexico
06 Nov, 2016
Dear Robbi,
…Your work is going to be a landmark for women everywhere. It is recognition of the loss and pain that they have had to bear alone. As a psychotherapist and a woman who miscarried on my second pregnancy, I deeply feel the pain that so many have experienced quietly and many shamefully, blaming themselves for a lifetime. Numerous clients I have worked with deal with issues related to loss of a child, before or after birth. And re-experiencing the pain when others ask questions or have discussions about children is a lifetime occurrence. … I would love to meet you. I feel like I know you already.
Love and blessings,
Marilyn Lowry
Texas
10 Aug, 2016
Dear Robbi –
I wanted to properly thank you for the opportunity and the privilege you gave us today to view your installation.
I can honestly say I’ve never experienced an art installation that was so personal or so moving. The journey that you describe, that both you and David took, appears to this observer as more than one could possibly bear. Your telling and showing of that journey is unforgettable. Your depiction of that experience speaks to issues and feelings that a whole generation of women, and men, have also experienced, and will continue to experience, that are uncharted – and yet widely shared — territory. Your work will surely foster many conversations and much healing.
Thank you again for allowing us to experience it.
Robbyne Jones
Vice President
New Mexico Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts
www.NewMexicoWomenintheArts.org | www.nmwa.org
11 Aug, 2016
Hi Robbi,
This is close to my heart, since I lost my only child to a rare illness when she was 3 years old. I put my grief into action for the past 16 years with gardening, setting up a Children’s Fund in her name and now working as a Special Ed. teacher for SFPS.
The Compassionate Friends Group gave me supportive readings and I did volunteer work with infants for awhile. This is an important topic that only women who have lost a child can truly empathize with. Few avenues for a voice, so congrats that you have one with this film.
Grief in action is powerful healing. I helped other children and spent time in nature. A turning point was when I had a session with a Shaman who massaged my head as I lay on the ground. He told me to imagine Mother Nature and all of her lost children: flowers, trees, animal species that are now extinct. I felt like I sunk into the earth a little, then a great empathy for almighty Mother Nature.
Take one day at a time……………
Best regards,
Linda Morton
Santa Fe Resident
09 Aug, 2016
Hello, Robbi….
My name is Kendall Currier…. Thank you again for the incredible, life-changing experience of seeing “The Empty Womb”
… The first impression … was of serenity …. My favorite piece in the show was a quilt made out of bloody swabs…a shivers and deep emotions went through my whole body. The overall power, intensity, and rawness of the installation is indescribable… a clear distinction between Art, and High Art.
“The Empty Womb” is nothing short of incredible…it holds the raw power of emotion, that so much Art lacks. I am envious of how brave you are… your message was received clearly on my end.
I have been reflecting upon the concept of children, when/if I should I have children, if I do then how long can/should I wait, etc. and I know that seeing your show …will forever stay with me, and again, is a clear example to me of High Art.
Your show has deeply inspired me and has made me realize that even in the darkest of times, we can still all teach, learn, and and grow from one another
Sincerely,
Kendall Currier
(20 year old man)
22 Jul, 2016
The Woman Who Cannot
Related Poem Content Details
By Unknown
Translated by Miller Oberman
The woman who cannot bring forth her child: go to a dead man’s grave and then step three times over the grave, and then say these words three times:
This is my cure for the loathsome late-birth
This is my cure for the bitter black-birth
This is my cure for the loathsome imperfect-birth
And when that woman is with child and she goes to her lord in his bed, then let her say:
Up I go, over you I step,
with a quick child, not a quelled one,
with a full-born one, not a doomed one.
And when the mother feels the child is quick, go then to a church, and when she comes before the altar say then:
Christ, I said it. This has been uttered.
The woman who cannot bring forth her child: grasp a handful of her own child’s grave, and after that, bind it in black wool and sell it to peddlers, and say then:
I sell it, you sell it.
This blackened wool, this sorrow seed.
20 Jul, 2016
Ms Robbi
You have no idea how much I enjoyed seeing your journey.
What forethought – for example – to have seen a baby blanket of blood soaked cotton alcohol swabs during a time of such joy (the beginning of your IVF jouney)… To me, during my journey, and I say mine because of course it was different than my ex-wife’s, all such items were and would still be only trash… Yet you took something so minute and turned it into a profoundly heartfelt, repulsive, loving object.
Robbi Firestone
YOU ROCK!!!
And your art means something to me!
I love you! But mostly today, I love you for sharing!
Brad Furry
Santa Fe, NM
20 Jul, 2016
Dearest Robbi…. What a touching revelation of your journey. Thank you for creating magnificent art that gives “voice” to your experience. And what a powerful window into the invisible pain and frustration of so many women.
You are truly a blessing! Cheering for you always!!
Big love!
Sharon Ramey, Seattle WA
20 Jul, 2016
When you spoke about how profound the hysterectomy had hit you it took me back … A night long ago … I was 45 … Late … Lying in a hospital room alone – my husband had gone home and would be back early to be there for my surgery … I could hear the pan music coming up the street into my hospital window in Barbados … The next day I would be losing the part of me that should have given me my greatest desire … And outside people were partying! Rather weirdly profound! What hit me was something you said about no one – even in my case my husband, not really realizing what this meant to me … Part of my soul was being ripped away … I felt that is what you were conveying yesterday in something you said … The wound scabs, we move on, but a piece of our spirit has been removed … Possibly it is just in wait til the next incarnation where it comes to us directly … Or it is passed to another and comes to us through another … I know that your work is right, needed and spot on! Namaste …
Ali Crane, Olympia WA
20 Jul, 2016
your project is insanely brilliant
heart wrenching
you are one tough chick
talented
insightful
expressive
I am proud to know you!
Glynda Kramer
Johannesberg, South Africa
23 Jun, 2016
“Although I am gay. ..I always wanted a baby girl….Always. …having been a victim of sexual abuse denied me that right. …I do feel your incredible pain and loss and suffering. ..I look stronger than I am……I have seven siblings. ..I am the only one without children. ..it sucks…and at my age…I will never be blessed with a child of my own… it is incredibly sad and lonely and unless one has or endured continue to endure the emptiness. They will never truly know….I am so incredibly sorry honey….I do know your pain and I’m sure your lover is just as sad. ..as I tell my family. ..I have no blood line…no name sake…when I am gone. ..that’s it….I feel you ms Firestone. ..truly I do…I bet you never knew that.
..be blessed
Karen D, Tacoma WA
20 Jun, 2016
“I love you! Amazing brave woman, in your own search for meaning, you are speaking for those of us who just can’t express that which must be expressed in some way. Thank you!”
-Mary Clanahan; Naples, Florida
19 Jun, 2016
“My gift to “The Empty Womb” – mementos from my mothers . . . a handkerchief from my great grandmother, a card on paper from my grandmother, wrapped in paper from my mother. Healing my legacy of motherhood. Thank you Robbi Firestone for giving woman our voice about the pain in our past and present so that we can create a future of freedom!” -Heather Ivri Turner
Ivri is a dear friend of mine, and the mother of a son. She holds my Motherhood in her heart. We have no idea what that means anymore. Yet, she is there for me. And she has love for every other woman who grieves child loss. There are women all around us who are our ‘red tent tribe,’ and will help us through this journey.
I opened her note; profound in its expression. Ivri’s words touched my heart deeply.
Four generations gifted The Empty Womb today, through one of the most conscious, heart felt, intelligent women I know.
Thank you, dearest Ivri. For not giving up on me, and for holding me strong. Your gift will become a very special part of #TheEmptyWomb installation.
To those of you still struggling (and it may never go away);
do not give up on yourself, your child, your heart, or your life. We’re here for you.
18 Jun, 2016
“Humans have been gifted with the opportunity to experience every aspect of feeling. And while we all love those moments of pure joy, there is a beauty in the grief, the hurt, the suffering and eventually the breakthrough back into the light. Thank you Robbi for being so open and willing to be exposed, authentic and vulnerable, to allow us to witness your amazing journey into the darkest night and your beautiful, and so breathtakingly real creation as you birth this amazing installation. Thank you for teaching me what it means to create from your soul and what it means to be a woman. Your strength and courage and vulnerability and heart are so inspiring and you will forever impact so many women with this piece. This is art expressing life and I am so honored you chose me to create this little film about your heart and your work. I am excited because starting tomorrow I begin to finally put it together. This is an all female film, Produced by the amazing Wendy Keown, who’s love of documentary film is inspiring, Cinematographer Mary Lou Sandler, with her brilliant eye and sensibility and our Editor Tina M Imahara. It’s a creation of the heart from all the women involved, a labor of love, and I can’t wait to finish it.”
-Betsy Chasse, (Producer/Director/Writer) of The Empty Womb documentary
10 Jun, 2016
Robbi, you are a totally amazing woman, and the work you have done is incredible. We so admire you courage, vulnerability and deep desire to express yourself through your art.
This life is a hard journey for many and somehow we all have a cross to bear. You have embraced this pain and grown, healed and helped so many in the process.
Think of you both so very much.
Xxxxxxxxx
Karin Braby,
Johannesburg, South Africa
12 Mar, 2016
So potent and vulnerable. This is a subject that touches so many, so deeply. Thank you for sharing your heart and soul in this journey for the healing and inspiration of subject so rarely shared.”
Blessings, Amy Saloner
Natural Baby Pros
07 Apr, 2016
Hi Robbi,
I just wanted to thank you for the studio tour and walk through your installation…. It is a powerful piece – I can’t imagine the process required to articulate something this personal and translate that into such an immersive experience.
There is something poignant and lovely about the textural quality and the fade in and out of the softness and statement. It reminds me of a show that I saw directed by Anne Bogart called Death and the Ploughman. She used text from a 1400 play about a farmer arguing with Death about why his wife shouldn’t die. Of course, we all know who wins the argument. Anyway, the language was just archaic enough to become almost music, but, at points, recognizable enough to ground the audience in the feeling of real, desperate loss. I felt like this about your piece – almost as though if you squint, you can disengage and feel surrounded by soft texture, but when you focus again, you are reminded of the specific, pointed loss and pain.
Regardless, thank you for showing it. It can’t be easy, even in informal situations like that. If you have the time when you are in Seattle again, I’d love to get a cup of coffee or a cocktail and talk art and life….
Thanks again,
Katie Davis-Sayles
Founder and Designer
Kanawha Design Studio, LLC
kanawhadesignstudio.com