Comments on: Artist-Mother Tips

By: Vanessa Turner Fine Art | Balancing Act – Artist + Mother

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:46:55 +0000

[…] on Art Biz Blog, Alyson asked her readers for tips on balancing art and motherhood. I replied to the post and […]

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By: Balancing Act – Artist + Mother | Vanessa Turner Fine Art

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 18:29:46 +0000

[…] on Art Biz Blog, Alyson asked her readers for tips on balancing art and motherhood. I replied to the post and […]

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By: Balancing Act - Artist + Mother | Vanessa Turner - Bermuda Art

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 05:02:30 +0000

[…] on Art Biz Blog, Alyson asked her readers for tips on balancing art and motherhood. I replied to the post and […]

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By: Monika Aebischer

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:03:35 +0000

As a professional artist and a professional mother (grin) I look at it very simply. You treat your art as a job. You set your work hours, and you go and show up. If you are hired to work at a “real” job it is not an option to “go” to work. I am fortunate, my studio is away from home, so “going” to work is exactly that “going”.
I also knew that until my son was in school full time (i.e. grade 1), I would not have the same time to devote to my work. I’ve done anything from working from 6:30 am until 10:45 am when he was in Kindergarten, to ensuring that one day during the week my husband does dinner and bed-time duty as well so that I can just stay at the studio without having to worry about any motherly, wifely and home-based duties.
Of course, a mother’s career no matter if it is as an artist, or as a high-powered politician, is only as successful as she treats it. I believe that the only reason men have been more successful in art is because they just take the time for their careers and us women and mothers let them have it by taking care of all life’s necessities. Let’s face it, if we did that, our careers would all be different.
Women also have choices how many children they have. This too plays a part in our career choices. Of course it is possible to have 4 or 5 children, but then it becomes even harder to manage those many people Being an artist is not a choice, living a creative life and creating, that is a choice.

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By: Lucy

Wed, 18 May 2011 22:27:42 +0000

I find it’s a constant juggling act – I need to be organised and have a regular time-slot every day when ‘mummy is sewing’ – but that this needs to be flexible, and I need to be accepting of the fact that some days it just won’t happen.
The children often join in, though – they play in my fabric boxes, use scraps for collages, do finger knitting, or if I’m sketching, they sketch too (I had great fun in the garden with my two daughters yesterday doing 5-minute leaf studies – my 10yo is pretty good, the 3yo’s results were …. interesting 😉 ). But they like to be involved and often have input on projects. My oldest now regularly comes with me to craft fairs, and I love having her company – and she’s getting to be a fairly accomplished needlewoman and knitter herself, now.
I think it’s important that they know that I have something that is important to me, that makes me “more than” “just” mummy – not only for them to realise that I’m a human as well, but also to show them that the way to achieve your dreams is to go for it – and that it involves a fair amount of hard work and commitment along the way. I can’t tell them that they can do or be whatever they choose, without setting them that example myself.

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By: Balancing Act - Artist + Mother | Fine Art by Vanessa Turner

Sun, 15 May 2011 11:09:14 +0000

[…] on Art Biz Blog, Alyson asked her readers for tips on balancing art and motherhood. I replied to the post and […]

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By: Jenny

Sat, 14 May 2011 05:48:25 +0000

In reply to Jamie.

My Mom is a pretty smart/creative lady. I forgot to specify that you want to do the squishing *inside* the plastic wrap… could be a heck of a mess otherwise!

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By: Jamie

Sat, 14 May 2011 05:44:41 +0000

In reply to Jenny.

Whoa what an awesome idea! I’m definitely going to give that a try – we do have an extensive collection of teeny tiny crayons!

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By: Jenny

Thu, 12 May 2011 21:58:27 +0000

In reply to Jamie.

When the crayon nubs get too little, one of my favorite things to do as a kid was to take muffin tins, line individual wells with little squares of plastic wrap and toss those nubs into the cups in fun combinations. A few hours out in the summer sun, and you can squish them in to marbled crayon balls (or in retrospect probably any shape really) drop them in some ice water or stick them in the fridge to cool and then you’ve got funky usable crayons again!

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By: Jamie

Thu, 12 May 2011 06:38:27 +0000

I have always been a bit of a night-owl and I get the most work done between about 9p-1a. It’s my natural creative rhythm so I roll with it! But I’ve made a conscious decision to do some amount of artwork, even if just a little, during my kids’ waking hours for the express purpose of letting them see it happen. I want them to really get that it’s something they can do and be a part of and that paintings don’t simply appear in the night!
I also let them fully explore their own creativity by allowing them to break their crayons and mix their Play-Doh – two things my mother NEVER would have allowed from me! We have lots of tiny paperless crayons and about 8 tubs of brown Play-Doh. 😉

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