I haven’t made it into the studio for 2 weeks, and it’s been difficult to find time to write. I keep starting this and then stopping again.
I’ve mostly been working from home in bits of time during naps and after bedtime, doing bits of work which I start and stop, then come back to and try and remember what I was thinking.
I took Abie to London to meet a fellow artist-mother, who is leaving London and moving back to South Africa. We met at Tate Modern and visited the new building, taking the boys up to the 10th floor to see the amazing views. Then we saw Louise Borgeois and Mona Hatoum. She said she’d had to stop making work because of the pressures of time, childcare costs and cost of living in London. So she’s moving away.
I also saw a friend who has an 8 year old and talked about how her career in the art world has been pretty much stuck, treading water since having a child. Another friend who is thinking of having a child said she’s considering putting her practice on hold for a while once she has the baby. She was concerned that she would lose focus if trying to do both.
Parenting seems to bring more compromises for women artists, but I could be biased. I’ve heard quite a few stories of women having to totally stop making art and get ‘a proper job’ to pay for childcare. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of support available for women with young children to continue having an art practice.
Meanwhile, I’ve been continuing small everyday art works.
I photographed another abandoned toy (in a pub garden)
I’ve been casting objects on the kitchen table
And I’ve been working on my ‘mother and child’ embroidery.
Small acts are much easier to start and finish.
