Firstly, thanks to everyone who replied. Like I said below I didn’t think about the personal nature of replies being incompatible with comments. Heard from some mums, dads, and some also worrieds. The majority says yes, you can have it all, but perhaps with a year off and some guilt. I also realised that lots of artists whose work I am pretty familiar with, are parents and I would never have known. I also had some good chat going on on facebook about the entry and among the emails, the following response about planning (from a previous post) and babies, from my mum is probably my favourite (she is pretty awesome and usually speaks sense).
Hi
been reading your blog …
1: you need an appraisal – Your boss wants to know what you’ve been up to and what your plans are, so – write on one side of A4 what you have achieved in the past year and on the other side what you plan to do in the next year.
When my appraisal’s due I look at what I’d said I’d do last year and see whether I have achieved it, then write down what I want to do in the next year.
I also have vague 10 year plan – 1 small piece of paper and a quick scrawl of what needs doing and what I’d like to do.
I do have a budget of 300k to spend and have to say what I want to spend it on – you’ll have to work in paper and pencils or somesuch instead but the principle is the same whether it’s tuppence or a million.
as for babies – yes you can do it – they can go to nursery at 2.5 and they’ll be great at helping you make things up until then (as long as you don’t mind sick etc. on the works of art!!) and they bring a whole new dimension to your life.
Les
Ok Grandma.
Appraisal first then…
Linzblog: much building and collapsing (see images of me building places to hide). It is raining, which is a relief as I feel no need to leave my studio. Attic idea for the next exhibition completely refused. I am spending too much time on the computer and it’s making me really tense! – But(!) one more application to get through today and then I’m done…
