Making Art And Being A Mom

What can I say about making art and being a mom?

I used to think you had to choose one or the other, like that infamous quote by performance artist, Marina Abramovic. Or that women don’t first off handedly choose to be artists but drift into that arena to fill up the space when they find they sadly, physically unable to procreate, see Frida Kahlo, or don’t have the support to raise a family, see Maud Lewis, or maybe just never found the right partner, or maybe they just never intended to, Georgia O’Keefe?

But then again, I think of the other women painters who did, Leonora Carrington had 2, Artemesia Gentileschi had 5, Grandma Moses had 10! So in short, there really is no right way, nor wrong way, I think, to go about being an artist or being a mom, and or being both. There’s really no need to overthink it, you just wake up in the morning and keep at it.

History is marked with female painters I admire, I guess in a way I always thought of all of them as my own “art mums,” and as I spent my youth devouring the biographies of each and every one, finding inspiration in all of them, I look at their independent trials and tribulations, their particular obstacles and fears, and admire that despite everything, they all continued to paint. I cut and paste what I admire from each of them as I make peace that there really is no single life manual to go by, and that like one’s own art, as one’s own life, you really just have to map out your own path in the end. Everybody’s got their own problems, their own issues, and ultimately, I believe it all added a uniqueness to their art, and that’s what makes it original.