Episode 05: Adopted Rainbow Baby After Three Miscarriages with Artist Sarah Fox
Love Mom, 2019, Sarah Fox
Pregnancy loss is something that most people don’t talk about, much less make art about. Artist Sarah Fox has made poignantly beautiful work during and after her three miscarriages and continues to make art about her adopted rainbow baby, William.
This episode tells the story of Sarah’s three miscarriages, including her baby Finn, who she lost at the end of her first trimester of pregnancy. She talks about the difficulty of handling depression and anxiety while being off prescription medications during pregnancy after loss as well as the testing she went through to try to find the cause of her miscarriages. Sarah shares how she and her husband finally made the decision to adopt their son, William, through a private adoption and what that process was like.
As a heads up, Sarah does share physical details of her miscarriage in this episode. I think it’s so important to talk about considering that one in four pregnancies ends in loss and so many women walk through that experience alone and in the dark about what to expect.
I actually recorded this episode with Sarah the week before my miscarriage in April 2019. I was so grateful to have heard Sarah’s experience with miscarriage, including taking a prescription medication to help her body “abort the tissues of conception,” as the doctors say, and also her D&C procedure. I chose to take the prescription medication and felt relieved to know what to expect after talking with Sarah.
Finn, 2016, Sarah Fox
Sarah speaks candidly and is such a joy to talk with. She is able to find beauty in her pain and darkness and is such a bright person. I know her story will have an impact.
Here’s the episode:
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or on my website taylorashleybates.com/podcast
And please share this podcast with anyone you know who is walking through life after pregnancy loss—whether they are trying to conceive, currently pregnant, or parenting after loss.
About Sarah
Sarah Fox’s multi-media narratives and characters are created from embodied female experience. Stories of life, loss, love and sex are told through corporeal hybrid creatures. The resulting collages, drawings, sculptures and animations suggest a childlike fairytale but with an undercurrent of dark symbolism.
Her work has been shown throughout Texas, as well as in the Kinsey Institute (Bloomington, Indiana), Field Projects Gallery (New York, New York), Espacio Dörffi (Lanzarote, Canary Islands), Bedsetter Art Fair (Vienna, Austria), Atelierhaus Hilmsen (Hilmsen, Germany) and Casa Lu (Mexico City, Mexico).
She lives and works in San Antonio, Texas where she is the co-director of the innovative community art space Clamp Light Studios and Gallery, the exhibition director for the Brick Gallery in the Blue Star Arts Complex, and serves as board chair of the month long arts celebration Contemporary Art Month.
Show Notes
Sarah’s “Surrogate” exhibition