Maternal Instinct (2023) Drawing by Edwin Loftus

Pastel on Cardboard, 17x11 in
$2,092
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This artwork appears in 7 collections
  • Original Artwork (One Of A Kind) Drawing, Pastel on Cardboard
  • Dimensions Height 17in, Width 11in
  • Artwork's condition The artwork is in perfect condition
  • Framing This artwork is not framed
  • Categories Drawings under $5,000 Symbolism Love
A mother's instinct to protect her child is one of those flaws in any assumption that pragmatism inspires evolution. Even weak, timid, awkward little women may turn into ferocious fighters when their offspring are threatened. I have seen this and can attest that the woman involved appeared to have nearly lost her ability to objectively reason,[...]
A mother's instinct to protect her child is one of those flaws in any assumption that pragmatism inspires evolution. Even weak, timid, awkward little women may turn into ferocious fighters when their offspring are threatened. I have seen this and can attest that the woman involved appeared to have nearly lost her ability to objectively reason, and in the incident I saw, she behaved irrationally.
There's a famous photo-series from Africa in the last century. A male lion has caught a Zebra foal and the mother zebra doesn't hesitate to attack the lion, pinning it against the ground with a mouth full of lion in its teeth. In size and speed, she was a near enough match, but otherwise, the lion had every advantage which is why zebras run from lions, not the other way around.
As a matter of species survival every instinct ought to rule in favor of the mother abandoning the offspring, it takes years and a lot of luck and danger avoided to produce a reproductive female. Throwing that investment in survival away for an infant with only a four-in-five to much less chance of surviving to reproductive age is no kind of survival-based instinct, and in most species, without the mother, the infant will die anyway. In the zebra's case, tackling a lion could cost the herd four or five future members.
To some extent, this defensive instinct is rational. To the extent that the mother has a chance of saving her young, but the instinct is clearly very often not limited to that extent.
So, that inspired this image. The demon in the background symbolizes the danger, the mother and child symbolizes all mothers and their children for whom this phenomenon proves true.
But if survival isn't an adequate explanation for this instinct ... what is?
I have ideas but leave it to you to form your own.

Related themes

MothersMaternal InstinctNatureMotherhoodEvolution

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Edwin Loftus is an American painter and draftsman born in 1951. His interest in art began at the age of 4 when he decided to draw something real rather than working from his imagination.  As a child[...]

Edwin Loftus is an American painter and draftsman born in 1951. His interest in art began at the age of 4 when he decided to draw something real rather than working from his imagination. 

As a child he excelled at drawing and as a teenager he began to experiment with oil painting. In college, he took courses in art and art history and realized that true art had nothing to do with the quality of the drawing or painting, but that it had to have the ambition to push the boundaries and expand the visual experience. 

He also studied philosophy, psychology and history and quickly realized that it was just another art establishment trying to defend its elitist industry and reward system. Their skills were almost non-existent, they knew nothing about psychology, perception or stimulus response, and they were extensions of the belief system that made communism, fascism and other forms of totalitarianism such destructive forces in the world. They literally believe that art shouldn't be available to ordinary human beings, but only to an elite "sophisticated" enough to understand it. 

Edwin Loftus realized that the emperors of art had no clothes, but they were still the emperors. Gifted in art, he worked hard to acquire this skill. So he found other ways to make a living and sold a few artworks from time to time. For sixty years, many people enjoyed his works and some collected them. 

Today, Edwin Loftus is retired. Even if he sold all his paintings for the price he asked, "artist" would be the lowest paid job he ever had... but that's the way it is.  It won't matter to him after he dies. He just hopes that some people will like what he does enough to enjoy it in the future. 

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