Babette Wainwright

Manman Pitit
pit-fired clay
9 x 5 x 5 in. | Sold

“Manman Pitit is a Kreyol term for mother of child. The piece represents the African belief of  “It takes a village to raise a child.” I also used the idea of the three mothers as the spiritual virtues – Faith, Hope and Charity – guiding the path of the child. I made the “child” as a separate removable piece to symbolize the high rate of infant mortality in the African American populations.”

​In 1998 Babette Wainwright discovered the pleasure and power of expressing herself with clay, making sculptures which are informed both by her African roots, and by the work of the pre-Colombian people of Haiti, the Arawaks. In 2000, she earned an MFA in Ceramics at the UW Madison. She has since been working in both mediums, using the female image as a vehicle for conveying her sense of uprootedness, and her spirituality.

Babette’s work is exhibited extensively. As a youth, she exhibited at the Centre d’Art of Port au Prince, Haiti. In the United States, her work has been shown in Baton Rouge, Atlanta, Washington D.C, Iowa, North Carolina, and Chicago. In Wisconsin, her paintings have been shown, both in solo and in group exhibitions, in Milwaukee, Appleton, Green Bay, Spring Green, and in numerous venues around Madison.

© Babette Wainwright