Artist Statement
As COVID-19 highlights concerns for our children’s well-being, the need to educate ourselves about the danger of alcohol consumption during pregnancy remains another key to safe and respectful maternal and newborn care.
I’ve found hope and inspiration in Dr. Hicks FASD team’s research into the protective properties of Vitamin A, and the nurturing qualities of the brain hormone, Oxytocin.
My depictions of female pelvic bones and breast interiors are metaphors for birth and maternal care. My mixed media sculptures cast from petri dishes and drawings of brains and baby teeth explore themes of devotion, protection, and the parental bond.

Biography
Janet Shaw-Russell’s images of the vulnerable interior of the human body are symbolic of an array of feminist, social and medical issues.
She was selected as one of five artists to join the MAWA and Manitoba Neuroscience Network year-long learning partnership between artists and neuroscientists for 2020/21.
Shaw-Russell was paired with Dr. Geoff Hicks, who studies the world’s most common neurodevelopmental disorder, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), which affects 1%-5% of newborns every year.
Her works have been exhibited throughout Manitoba and Saskatchewan, including a recent group show, Dura Mater: Objective/Subjective, curated by Leona Herzog, at Saint Boniface Hospital’s Buhler Gallery.