Being a Mom and Artist

Parenting is challenging and rewarding under any circumstances. Being a parent as an artist is doubly so.

People who don't understand the artist's life think you're a mom with a hobbie, and why can't you volunteer? Relatives tell you of the necessity of two income families in this era, not realizing that you earned more than your partner that year. There's no boss insisting that you work when the kids are sick, which is quite wonderful, but sometimes you wish there was a boss setting boundaries. 

 

It was so challenging to reserve those few hours of painting time when my kids were small, but then when I got out to the studio, all I could paint was them.

But all of these frustrations pale at the delight of having a tot perched on a stool by your palette, cooing, "More purple, Mommy, more yellow;" the thrill of chasing toddlers through an opening art reception, narrowly dodging neon sculptures; the comfort of having young adults come at the end of an open studio weekend and help load up the cars.

  

My daughter remembers riding into San Francisco with me when she was very small and I had to deliver a show in a storm. Paintings were hanging out the back of the open hatch of the Honda, and the torential rain was blowing in. I held the steering wheel with one hand and gripped a tarp over the canvases with the other while my daughter cried. Upon arriving at the gallery, she happily buzzed about as I did the paperwork.

I remember bringing my children with me when I hung a cafe show after the business had closed for the night. They helped me carry the paintings through the urban neighborhood, and while they did their homework at a table, the staff brought them chocolate.

They have posed for paintings along with their friends, helped with painting titles, shared their opinions on compositions even when in preschool, and guided me throught the perplexities of social media.

My grown daughter told me recently, "It wasn't until I got to college that I realized how unusual our home was. Growing up with artists, I just thought this was the way it was for everyone." It's so delightful now to watch then explore their own creative outlets.