Steeb's been organizing an amazing art show with over 45 artists making pieces about superheroes. He's become Super Coach, encouraging people to make awesome work. I've been his trusty side kick, making food, editing emails and letting him sleep in a little when he is at the studio until 4am. Along with all the artist wrangling, we made our own art for the show. Even franklin.
After almost four years of struggle with how to be a parent and an artist, it kind of feels like we are figuring it out. At least for a half an hour (that I documented!) we were a creative family all together making art in our studio, supporting each other and having fun.
Getting to this point has involved a lot of mutations. Letting go of what we should do and be and look like, how our schedules ought to run. It means our family doesn't look like the average family. (But honestly these days, what does an average family look like?) It means we work odd hours and don't travel or go on dates very often. We work weekends and always have some project in the living room as well as in the studio.
And the studio itself is hardly a retreat from family life, though Steeb and I create most of our work in solitude. When we need to, we pack snacks and trains and I will listen to scratchy stories on a fisher price record player if that buys me 5 more minutes of work with Franklin hanging out. There are glass jars that used to hold buttons and piles of buttons scattered in random corners. Piled everywhere are toys and dust bunnies and sketchbooks and black threads. And it suits me just fine.
I wouldn't necessarily recomend our choices to anyone else. But there is comfort in peeking into someone else's world. To see that there are so many wonderful ways to live a life, to see what is possible. Even with a family.
Come see our mutant family October 4 at make.shift gallery for the opening of MUtants R Us.
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