Mother's Project

Vadis Turner is an artist living in Nashville, TN. Her work, in recent years, has focused on the transitions a women encounters throughout her life and borrows from the experience of other women. We met on her mother's land for this interview and she talks a lot about the inspiration she has garnered from her mother's daily practices. Charred refuse and biological materials come together with more traditional art making products to create alchemical structures. This was an inspiring conversation that explored the ways her art practice has informed her mothering.

Daisy McGowan lives and works in Colorado as an artist and curator. Being mother to a newborn has spanned over 20 years of her life with her first being born when she was a junior in college. In this episode she describes the way becoming pregnant didn't veer her off course, but rather solidified her resolve in becoming a career driven mother. She reflects on how people treated her 20 years ago, a young woman with her first baby, versus today. She tells the story of finding new love and family after 40 and the empowering birth experience she was able to have at an older age.

Emilia White is an artist and educator who works through performance, video and writing to express her comedic outlook on life. While the work she makes explores taboo and repugnant content, her personal story has introduced more difficult subject matter, and the problem of how to talk about it through her work. We learn about her experience of loss and how she came out of the depths of grief with the birth of her daughter and the creation of new work. This episode may not be appropriate for you if you are currently pregnant or suffering from depression or anxiety.

Jean Villapique is a comedian, actress and writer known for I Love You, Man, IV-Effing, and Key and Peele and plays economics teacher Michelle Jones in AP Bio. In this episode she talks about her long journey trying to become a mother. After several miscarriages, multiple cycles of IVF, dealing with family death, and battling through the adoption process, her miracle finally happens. We also hear clips from some of the work she was inspired to create out of this journey.

Kaylan Buteyn is an artist and mother who has started a movement among other artist mothers. She launched the Artist/Mother Podcast in early 2019 and immediately saw thousands of mothers flocking to the community by listening and posting their work on the podcast's instagram page @artistmotherpodcast. She talks about how early motherhood is different from being a mother of three. Feelings of isolation and loneliness, both as a mother and as a professional, drove her to launch the Artist / Mother Podcast, which set the stage for organizing a multitude of other groups like a critique group and book club. In this episode I visited her first retreat, and interviewed women who attended. We get a sense of what it means to be among like minded mothers in this nurturing professional environment. And we hear a bit about what this journey has meant for Kaylan.

After a long year of COVID, pregnancy and new baby, I'm back for season 2! Join me this summer for a new season of mothers finding the impulse to create after going through all the trials and tribulations of motherhood. I'll have five new interviewees on to talk about how their work and lives as mothers have intersected and conjoined. The first episode drops June 1.

In this bonus episode I learn from Carly Dothsuk, living in rural Western Kentucky, about what it's like being 8 months pregnant during this COVID-19 pandemic, and how she is preparing for her hospital birth. She speaks candidly about her mental health struggles early in pregnancy and why she is striving not to obsess over birth planning. We speak a lot about the focus on the body during pregnancy and how it relates to the focus on the body during this pandemic.

In this bonus episode, we hear from three mothers of newborns on their experiences with breastfeeding. If you're expecting, some things you'll hear them say may surprise you. And if you've gone through this process, you'll likely be nodding your head in agreement. These moms have some really great insight into how to deal with the emotional toil that can come with breastfeeding. I hope it gives you courage, perseverance, and a little ego boost, which we all need at a time like this.

This is the closing episode for Season 1 of this project. I have recapped , in an audio essay, some of my own experience with the transformational power of becoming a mother. Nine women have offered their stories of growth and transformation to me this season and I am most appreciative and grateful for their generosity. I am currently working on Season 2 which will be coming out next year!

In this episode I speak with Associate Professor of Psychology and Child Development Specialist Venessa LoBue and get some of the back story to her book 9 Months In 9 Months Out. She talks about being in a profession where studying other people's kids for her research made her feel strangely removed from the experience of having children. We touch on several interesting topics in the book including the development of gendered behaviors in kids and developing infant emotions. She also speaks to the important roll of having kids in her professional career. After hearing this interview you'll want to order her book immediately!

In this episode I speak with West Georgia alumna, and mom of three, Jessica Hill about her ongoing struggle with shaping her career while birthing and raising three kids. Jessica's story does not follow the beaten path. In fact, the path she has found seems to be a rough trail of obstacles that sporadically delivers epic promises and hope. I believe educators can learn a lot from Jessica's story as she presents an alternative version of an experience than what her educators may have believed they were delivering. Her story is still in its infancy and I will be following Jessica to see how it develops over the next year or so. Stay tuned!

In this episode JoLynne describes how the trauma of her first birth experience coupled with the empowerment of her second catapulted her into a career as a birth doula. She has also been an activist for policy change in Kentucky by serving on various committees and boards and has helped to change Kentucky's legislative policy on home births. This episode is all about self-empowerment, and acknowledging how adversity will move you forward in life, even if you feel you're drowning while you're in it.

In this episode, Brooke opens up about how the failure of her marriage in the first year of her daughter's life gave her the courage and tenacity to launch herself into a new career. Through a commitment to the 100 days project she gained a following, started getting regular commissions, and compiled a delightfully exhaustive journal of her time with her three year old daughter. She tells some of the stories associated with the drawings and talks about how the work she's done has put her on a path toward her most recent work, drawing the women of history for projects like Better Days 2020.

In this episode I speak with Lily Landers, a new mom who has devoted her life to teaching kids. She lives in LA, where she shares her yoga practice with kids in public schools and families in private homes. We talk about her experience teaching inner city youth in New York City and LA and what it took to get started with her teaching practice. She also tells me about the the way some of her teaching aide ideas came to her in those quiet moments of breast feeding.

In this episode I speak with Stacy Elaine Dacheux, an LA artist and relatively new mom. Her work reaches deep into an internal well of emotional responsiveness to produce poetic recordings of various moments of her life. In this episode, she reflects on the moments she has experienced since becoming a mother and what these experiences mean to a mother like her, and possibly all mothers everywhere. We talk about the spiritual core in her work and how it relates to her experience as a caregiver. All mothers, artist or not, maker or not, will appreciate how Stacy makes meaning from the confusing experiences that come with motherhood.

Annie is a ceramicist and professor at Auburn University. She has a very unique experience with becoming a mother, as her son was diagnosed with a rare brain condition shortly after his birth. In this episode we retrace the first year of his life and their family's struggle with finding proper treatment for their baby's condition. She describes the way her work altered after going through this experience and all she had to do to stay in a healthy mindset. Annie is one of the most resilient people I've met and her insight and strategies for dealing with major trauma + life + career will have you feeling awe-inspired.

Justine is a bookmaker and ceramicist living in rural Mayfield Kentucky with a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Murray State University. She has an eight year old son she homeschools and feeds from their family’s farm. In this episode, we talk about Justine’s reticence with identifying as a mother while, at the same time, taking on the responsibilities of a homeschooling parent. She talks about her philosophies on learning and not being a rule follower, and how the two relate to her decision to become an artist.

Heidi is a Professor of Costume Design at Murray State University where she has been for over 11 years. She has two children ages 7 and 4. In this episode, she talks about the struggles her husband and she have had making a life in a rural town. Heidi landed the secure professorial job in Murray, leaving her husband, Daniel, to be the homemaker and main caregiver for the kids. Daniel just recently returned to work which was a process for the entire family. Heidi elaborates on how she felt when her kids were born, her philosophy on how to keep a creative household and what sorts of anxieties she has navigated since becoming a mother.