The Three Moira

• The Three Moira is another name for the Three Fates of Greco-Roman mythology. They were three sisters, whose will could not be changed, even by the gods. The artist took up this guise for her triple self-portrait.

• In 1969, Thorington was pregnant when a fellow female printmaker suggested she do a self-portrait. Thorington saw her pregnancy as dependent on fate. Would the baby be healthy? What gender would it be? What would she let loose on the world?

• About the background, she writes, “Ah yes, the world – that was exactly the right background for the fates. And the people, the people in the worlds must be shimmering in the darkness, must be waiting for these women, these Moirai, to decide their fate.”

• Prior to Second Wave Feminism, media depictions of pregnancy were rare and even more rare in the nude. It was 1952 before the first pregnant character graced the television screen in I Love Lucy, though it was still taboo to use the word “pregnant.” Thorington took the chance, creating a portrait of herself as she was at that moment in time.