Mommy Artist

Being an artist, a mom, and a single parent made my art career a wraparound business.
Wrapped around the constant juggling of my childrens' needs.

When my youngest son was born, I was in a such a state of panic about my impending deadlines, that I wrote a very strict daily schedule to enable me to complete the jobs between rocking, nursing, burping, changing & washing the diapers, and napping. Whew!

The constant juggling made me a better artist, able to jump nimbly from assignment to assignment; picking up the pen or brush as soon as the baby went to sleep.

The perks:

• Child models at a moment's notice.
• Lots of interesting and highly opinionated comments about my work....which made me rethink the whole damn picture at times.
• A very supportive fan club as soon as they realized the value of having a mommy who could draw and liked to make stuff (lots of drawings of rocketships, aliens, and monsters, costume creations, themed birthday cakes, and tons of decorations in my MOM portfolio!).
• Invitations to speak about publishing & teach cartooning at all my son's schools and summer camps...which actually was alot of fun.

Years later, my now grown sons are both artists and still a huge influence on me. One is a very creative digital designer and the other is a talented cartoonist and musician in his own right. Both are still my sounding boards , compelling me to rethink my illustrations, feeding me new and interesting ideas; continuing to be my most enthusiastic fans.

So my earlier post about career loss is not a complaint about motherhood. Being a mom made me a healthier, happier, and much more complex artist.