functional, decorative, conceptual

I am also stimulated to talk about my experience of parenting and working as an artist. My first consideration is that I was a mother for 11 years before I even thought of becoming an aristAll through university I tried to leave the college early in order to leave my children with a babysitter as little as possible and did all my essays late at night after they were asleep.
The choices I have made after graduation also respect the fact that my priority is the family: my studio is at home allowing me to save on commute time and to work every minute of spare time I have while the children are at school, or even snatching some short intervals during their tv time. I choose to show my work in events that are local to London or maximum 2 hours away so I don’t have to spend nights away from home and we have a motor home to go to Potfest or Rufford once a year as a family trip.
This arrangement suites me even if sometimes it brings isolation from the artist world and a strange feeling of living in two incommunicable worlds. I do fantasize about doing a residency abroad or renting a studio somewhere in London but I know that this could have been the route if I had started this as my first career.
It is often difficult to compare myself with many artists who are may be younger that me but have worked for 20 years and so much more accomplished, but then I realize that the happiness of my children and a strong and balanced family is definitely one of my achievements.