• Contact Information • Education • Work Experience • Personal • ContaBiography • Artist's Statement • Selected Exhibitions • Community Service • Affiliation • Artist's Gallery

Address: Chicago, IL 60626

Other Website: Visit www.pinkobuttons.com to view Mo's peace and political buttons.

E-mail: mo_cahill@sbcglobal.net

• 1974-1976 Waubonsee Community College, Sugar Grove, IL, Major: Science, Liberal Arts
• 1978-1981 Apprentice Carpenter, Fox Valley District Council of Carpenters, Chicago District Council of Carpenters
• 1983-1985 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, ceramics, drawing

• 2000 Set design and construction for “Nobody Likes Retsina” by Barbara Georgans, Jon Steinhagen & Phillip Seward - The Community Arts Center at St. James
• 1999–present The Community Arts Center at St. James - teaching “Fine Arts for Children”
• Cook - prep and line cook including the 95th and Gordon Restaurants
• Lab Technician - food plant quality control, metallurgical research and development

Born, Aurora, Illinois, sixth of seven children. Since leaving SAIC: raising 5 children, along with my husband of 20 years, including 8 years of homeschooling. S-l-o-w-l-y remodeling and down-converting my 100 year-old rogers park two-flat by my own designs.

My current favorite joke is this: a buddhist walks up to a hotdog vendor and says “make me one with everything.” This joke appeals to me because I think I have taken a similarly pedestrian path. Perhaps even more lowly than hot dogs, that is, for the last 15 years I have been a full time mom. As a junior at the School of the Art Institute, finding myself expecting, still struggling to knit together a child from a previous marriage and a second husband into a family, I felt I had a life and death decision on my hands. I was a child of the women’s movement, indeed, an ardent feminist. I knew I could keep on with my career. But having tried that once, I knew there was a price to pay. I knew that putting myself first was not a ticket to happiness, but an invitation to tough choices, hard work and intense pain. As an artist, I also knew that my decisions would be staring back at me through my work forever.

But above all, I knew that being a full time mom, watching every day as these little ape-men turned into modern humans, was a worm’s eye view of human evolution and the core of what it means to be human. Although I was well aware of the low value placed on all this in the modern world, I also knew that there was a great deal of wisdom down this path, wisdom that I knew would inform my work. I often explain my decision by saying that there were no openings with Jane Goodall, watching chimpanzees, so I started my own little troop of primates. I did feel like an idiot, knowing that almost any gorilla can form a stable family, but few humans, myself included, can manage it. And when my son taught me that the first thing a new human needs is someone to fall in love with them, I felt that the comforts and stuff of modern life were worth very little.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not a spiritual seeker, in fact I am a devout atheist. I was really on a more philosophical and intellectual quest to find out what it really means to be human. I know we are biologically programmed to find satisfaction in replicating our genes, although I knew this is not enough in the modern world. But as a modern human I also was looking for my spot in the very long chain of life, my own way of being “one with everything”. I wanted to live an essential life. I didn’t anticipate at that time that I would be dropping out for so long, or that I would go on to have 5 children in all, but I am quite sure there was no other choice for me.

Although I have had little time to work over these 15 years, especially over the 8 years we spent as home schoolers, art has been an essential component of keeping my sanity and sense of self. My children are all in school now, and I have time to return to the art world. As I have more time to work I feel quite vindicated in my decisions. The life that looks back at me from my work is a beautiful and satisfying place, indeed.

before the events of sept. 11, 2001, my work was about my own life, my own family. but on that day, my eye was turned outward. especially as events have unfolded, and dissent has been squashed, i feel more and more the duty of an artist to speak the truth, pretty or no.

in addition to full scale artworks, i have turned my abilities to peace & political buttons. please see http://pinkobuttons.com for a selection of these buttons. in addition to the website, i have been a part of several peace demonstrations, in chicago and washington d.c., and have donated buttons to many others.

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