‘Seeds of Life’: The art of caregiving pulses through every brushstroke in Jen Hintz Eggers’ new exhibition

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In a small Wilmington gallery, artist Jen Hintz Eggers invites viewers into the quiet turbulence of early motherhood. Her latest collection at the Mezzanine Gallery traces the emotional tightrope of parenting — where closeness, separation, joy and fear often coexist.

For Eggers, a full-time mother and full-time artist, the work began as a way to make sense of that in-between.

“A lot of my painting really reflects my personal life,” Eggers said. “In the recent past, my paintings were processing my experiences with breastfeeding, which were often very difficult. So I’ve stepped into a new part of motherhood now … we’re still spending a lot of time together because he’s still young enough that he needs an adult with him most of the time. But also, he’s becoming more independent.”

That theme is captured in “As Above So Below,” the featured image of the show. In it, two mirrored seed of life patterns seem to speak to one another — similar yet distinct.

“It’s really this idea of two lives that are connected to each other. They overlap a little bit, they’re touching, but they’re also very separate … it’s a little bit of that idea of being in a relationship,” she said. “They have different color schemes to the two of them. So it’s kind of like, you know, they’re mirroring each other, they’re walking next to each other, but they’re separate.”

The seed of life motif appears throughout the show — a sacred geometry pattern formed by overlapping circles that expands outward into what’s known as the flower of lfe. For Eggers, it’s both a spiritual and symbolic anchor.

“That single central portion of it is often called the seed of life. So that’s where the title comes from — is that pattern that’s used in the work,” she said.

Another standout is “Memento Vivere,” a five-canvas series that takes its name from the Latin phrase meaning “remember to live.” The series interprets the exhibition’s central theme — honoring life, change and emotional resilience through caregiving and memory.

“I wanted to make a ‘memento vivere,’ which is a reminder that you must live,” she said. “So it’s this shifting kind of change of life … processing this kind of transformation, the way that time passes and everything changes, right? Like the only thing that’s certain is death and taxes and change.”

Each painting in that series holds fragments of Eggers’ own memories: leaves bursting forth in early spring, chasing the northern lights with her family, watching bubbles break on the sand at Cape Henlopen under a full November moon.

“They’re drawn from things like happy memories … each of those paintings in that series have these memories of really beautiful moments for myself,” she said. “Trees, the leaves bursting forth in the early spring or early summer. I took all of that imagery from, like, the creeks and stuff when we’d go out and play out in the woods.”

Inspiration behind Eggers’ work

Some of Eggers’ earliest works in the collection were born out of one of the most difficult stretches of her early motherhood, too — when her infant son was struggling to gain weight and breastfeeding proved to be a challenge.

“When my son was really little, four, five months old, it was still struggling to gain weight,” she said. “We’re still figuring out how to get him adequately fed. That was a long, hard struggle. And it’s terrifying because, you know, babies die.”

In the midst of that fear and exhaustion, she found herself desperate for a moment to think — to simply take off the “mother” cap for a few minutes. She finally found that space in her art studio, occasionally handing her son to her husband — a brief, necessary step away.

While the exhibition is personal to Eggers, she says it speaks universally — and invites everyone to walk through the gallery and reflect.

“Take a seat, take a breath and just look for a minute. Trace the lines. Let it give you some structure for your thoughts … That’s what they’re meant for. That’s really what their purpose is,” she said.

“Seeds of Life” is on view at the Mezzanine Gallery in the Carvel State Office Building through July 25. The gallery is free and open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.