Find out about Artists For Moms, and meet our new member joining the project in January. No matter who you are, you came from a mother. Each of us had very distinct experiences with our mothers (some not at all), but if you cannot bring yourself to feel compassion for women in need, then pledge to make a difference just because you love the woman who gave you life (even if you never met her). Ultimately, we are all children of women, and we are all connected through this most basic association. With this in mind, I decided to allow Artists for Moms to become an open source project: open to any individual wishing to participate, and open to interpretation and discussion.

Breast Cancer Awareness month celebrated its 25th anniversary this year with a multitude of highly successful campaigns and events. Millions of women and men came together to support the research for a cure – hundreds of websites went ‘pink’; thousands of dedicated articles and promotions circulated the internet; millions walked, ran, jumped, swam, threw, and sang to honor the victims and survivors of breast cancer. The Artists For Moms project takes a moment appreciate the journey so many women and families had to endure. November’s Artists For Moms contributors featured in this post and the pink gallery can be found below – thank you for helping to raise awareness!

“He began sexually abusing each daughter when she was about six, beginning with fondling, then kissing her genitals, and then moving on to oral and vaginal sex. One of his daughters began sleeping under her bed to get away from him. They did not notify the police. Throughout this entire span, Ray was very active in the Church and had constant callings.” In an all-male church and a strongly patriarchal community, complaints from women will typically get an extremely unfavorable reaction from both family and the clergy. The extensive political and religious networks of LDS have made reporting, tracking, and mitigating violence and sex crimes difficult. Shame and guilt keep victims from coming forward…

The first time I read about maternal mortality in TIME – a story about Fatmata Conteh of Siera Leonne who bled to death from a tear in her cervix during childbirth – I was inspired to start a very special project called Artists for Moms, which I hope will help raise awareness of high maternal mortality rates in third-world countries (among other issues) with the help of the global artist community. Most of us know the love of our mothers; some of us know the feeling of emptiness at having lost her or having never met her. A mother should not die because she is too poor or too uneducated – Artists for Moms aims to unite the artist community for the purpose of spreading the message of hope through artwork.