#motherartistsmakingart
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Hey MAMArtist* KELLY CERVANTES!
What are the ages of your child(ren), and where do you live?
Jackson, 11 + Adelaide, would be 8yo but passed away in 2019 days before her fourth birthday + Anessa, 4. We live in Maplewood, NJ.
How do you describe your art practice?
I am an writer and public speaker. I write shorter blog pieces and have published a book. I also speak at events and for various companies across the country.
Who is your artistic crush?
Author, Christie Tate (Group and BFF). She is a brilliant writer who tells it exactly as it is - I've never read such honest and real writing before finding her books. She also happens to be an incredibly generous person who helped me along the way without ever having met me. Bonus - she is also a mom!
What is a superpower Mother+Artists have?
Well, you can always rely on a mother to sh*t done, and that applies to her work as an artist as well. But perhaps even more powerful is our empathy. Never underestimate a mother+artist's ability to love and understand another human's trial and then turn that into relatable art for all to experience and learn from.
You have something exciting coming up! PLEASE SAY MORE ABOUT IT!
I just published my first book, Normal Broken: The Grief Companion For When It's Time To Heal But You're Not Sure You Want To, and it is a USA Today bestseller! Following the death of my daughter Adelaide from a neurodegenerative disease just days before her fourth birthday, I felt irrevocably shattered by the loss. I was broken. Through connecting with others and myself through writing I learned that not only is grief not linear, but we all grieve differently. It took me years to want to heal, which was the impetus for writing Normal Broken, because every other grief book I picked up assumed I wanted to heal and I didn't. I thought grief meant letting go of my daughter, or moving on without her. What I would eventually learn is that healing actually meant remembering and moving forward with her. That I would never be the person I was again before she died and that's OK. I would always be broken, but that I could learn to be Normal Broken.
How did motherhood directly, indirectly, oppositionally or integrally influence this project?
Having lost my daughter (and a pregnancy at 21 weeks), this book is integrally tied to being a mother. However, it was important to me to write a book that was accessible to people grieving all kinds of loss: be it a physical person, parent, spouse, friend - or grieving a dream, job, or person who is very much alive but no longer in our lives. Grief is grief is grief. Comparing our trials and losses serves no one. So yes, I lost my child and this book wouldn't exist without my daughter - without me being a mother - but that doesn't make my loss greater or less than anyone else's.
What are you currently reading or listening to that is giving you thoughts, feelings and reactions?
I am currently reading Meghan Riordan Jarvis' End of The Hour, which is a stunningly beautiful memoir, and I am listening to Grief is Love by Marisa Renee Lee, which is exposing me to the ways culture and race can impact the way we grieve. So... lots of grief books, but mostly memoirs because I love learning as much as I can about the human experience.
Any message for Mother+Artists reading this?
I read something recently that spoke to how women often think that if they are able to accomplish something then it must have been easy. GIVE YOURSELF CREDIT FOR ALL YOU DO! Surviving as an artist is not easy, motherhood certainly isn't easy - combine the two of them and we should all be celebrating every achievement, no matter the perceived size, along the way. Take a dance break, pop the bubbly, announce it on social media, whatever you need to do to acknowledge and celebrate you! Because whatever it is you've done, it definitely wasn't easy.
BEST LINKS to find you and your work!
www.kellycervantes.com
IG and Facebook: @kellygc411
Normal Broken is available everywhere books are sold!
Photo credits:
Top Row: Author photo by Justin Patterson
Bottom Row: Kelly & Adelaide, photo by Jennifer Loomis; Book cover, Benbella Publishing
*Each month The MAMAs features a Mother+Artist and their work in the world. Thank you Kelly!
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Hey MAMArtist* JENNY MERCEIN (she/her)
What are the ages of your child(ren), and where do you live?
My daughter is 7 and we live in New Orleans!
How do you describe your art practice?
I am an actor, a writer, a director, a producer, a storyteller, and a teacher. I am interested in creating socially relevant theater that speaks to contemporary issues. My plays are not didactic, but hopefully they inspire meaningful post-show conversations (and also make you laugh along the way!). I always tell my students: I don't believe theater can change the world but I do think it can spark conversation that can lead to positive social change.
An example of this is ROLEPLAY, a feature length documentary I am producing. It follows a diverse group of college students as they use theater to confront sexual violence on campus -- grappling with questions about sex, consent, identity, and power on their path to adulthood. We are in the final stages of fundraising for this film. I truly believe it will be a catalyst for game-changing conversations on high school and college campuses across the country.
Who is your artistic crush?
As a solo performer, I fell in love with the form via the solo plays of Wendy Weiner, an amazing writer and performer who I met when I first moved to NYC in the mid-90's. Wendy has a new show called The Mystery House which recently played in Edinburgh. I hope it has a long life! I also must add Heidi Schreck. I've been a huge fan of her work since I was in grad school in Seattle 2000-2003. I loved her first as an actor, then as a writer. The fact that many people have compared my show TWO ELIZAS to "What the Constitution Means to Me" is the highest compliment to me!
What is a superpower Mother+Artists have?
Probably not an original answer, but we can multitask!
You have something exciting coming up! PLEASE SAY MORE ABOUT IT!
My solo show TWO ELIZAS explores motherhood, women's rights, and intergenerational resilience. I will be bringing TWO ELIZAS to the Whitefire Solofest in Los Angeles on January 12th, 2024!! I am so excited to share this piece with West Coast audiences.
How did motherhood directly, indirectly, oppositionally or integrally influence this project?
TWO ELIZAS is 100% influenced by my experience of motherhood. The entire show was born out of the experience of becoming a mom. The play explores the true story of my ancestor Eliza Mercein Barry and her landmark 1847 U.S. Supreme Court case Barry v. Mercein which established a woman's right to retain custody of her child. Eliza's story is juxtaposed with my own complicated journey to motherhood, which included fertility struggles and mental health challenges. The play affords me the opportunity to share the anxiety I faced as a 40 year old woman feeling enormous pressure (societal, familial, and internal) to marry and procreate, as well as to talk candidly about my IVF journey and my experience with miscarriage. I am grateful to be able to openly discuss topics that are sadly still shrouded in silence and shame. The story of my ancestor is also an incredibly inspiring story of resilience, and of the US Supreme Court upholding a woman's bodily autonomy... which unfortunately highlights the ways in which the courts no longer seem interested in supporting the rights of mothers.
What are you currently reading or listening to that is giving you thoughts, feelings and reactions?
I absolutely adored Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, which explores motherhood and theater. And I just listened to a deeply disturbing episode of the podcast The Daily about CTE in young football players. I collaborated with KJ Sanchez on a docudrama called X's and O's that centered on the role of football in our society, so the piece impacted me profoundly.
Any message for Mother+Artists reading this?
It is never too late. Give yourself grace. Every moment you spend raising your child(ren) is giving you life experience that will ultimately serve your art. By the same token, don't feel guilty when you leave your child to do your work. If you are lucky enough to have childcare, a supportive family member, or other resources that enable you to step away to practice your craft, DO IT! You are being an exceptional role model for your kid(s), showing them that pursuing your passion is worth devoting time and energy. And time away/ time spent on your craft rejuvenates you as a parent. But again, it's never too late. If you need to pause, pause. If you need to step away to focus on family, step away. You will always be an artist.
BEST LINKS to find you and your work!
TWO ELIZAS in Los Angeles at the Whitefire Solofest on January 12, 2024
Information about ROLEPLAY, the feature documentary about love, sex, power, and consent on college campuses
www.JennyMercein.com
*Each month The MAMAs features a Mother+Artist and their work in the world. Thank you Jenny!
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Hey MAMArtist* Margaret Campbelle-Holman (she/her)
What are the ages of your child(ren), and where do you live?
My daughter is grown and has her own family. I live in Nashville, TN.
How do you describe your art practice?
Building, lifting and sharing the inherent music and storytelling artistry in our children and youth. I was trained as a music teacher. My career has taught me that I am more than that. I am a music education artist.
Who is your artistic crush?
My Mother, Marjorie Holmes Campbelle.
What is a superpower Mother+Artists have?
We have determination to serve others through our craft/artistry; a vision of how artistry builds community across borders; and we can inspire others such that through artistry and craftsmanship, doors open for children/youth.
You have something exciting coming up! PLEASE SAY MORE ABOUT IT!
I founded a nonprofit (Choral Arts Link) to serve elementary school student singers across our city’s schools because I saw students in my school ‘rise’ above what they believed was possible. I also experienced and discovered how their classroom growth fueled choral performances that lifted other students, their families and the school’s surrounding community.
MET Singers’ first performance was in 1998 and served public school singers. Our programming now includes private, charter and home school singers, grades 4 - 12, representing the growing cultural canvas of Nashville.
January 14, 2024 will be the 26th annual performance of our MET Singers with the Nashville Symphony. MET Singers serves as the Celebration Youth Chorus for the symphony’s Let Freedom Sing concert, a tribute to the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The singers will have pre-concert retreats in Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, engaging with national conductors and guest artists for the experience of a lifetime. Even this year, this event will be the first performance inside this historic building for a large percentage of the singers and their families.
How did motherhood directly, indirectly, oppositionally or integrally influence this project?
As a mother, I looked for music and arts opportunities for my daughter. The arts experiences I had as a child in Nashville began in my home and continued throughout high school, in a segregated school system. My experiences were vast and deep because of my parents, especially my Mother, who was a musician, pianist, organist and music educator.
I was asked to return to Nashville to be the first officially hired music teacher in the public elementary schools of Nashville. Prior to this invitation, music education/experiences were only provided by classroom teachers. My daughter had participated in a wide variety of musical encounters during our time in Sarasota, FL and Memphis, TN, but these were not available in the city schools of Nashville, my hometown.
MET Singers/Choral Arts Link is an outgrowth of all of these things, especially with regard to what I was able to provide for my daughter in other cities. Creating opportunities for my Nashville students was an outgrowth of seeing my daughter thrive and recognizing that students in the two schools where I taught, at that time located in the two poorest communities in Nashville, deserved the same options as any other children within elementary music education system.
What are you currently reading or listening to that is giving you thoughts, feelings and reactions?
The bible. Also, articles on relational thinking, music as community builder, and the relationship between music and the brain.
Any message for Mother+Artists reading this?
Fill/Expose your child to the arts early. Interact with your child through the arts, not just by watching them but by singing with them, playing duets with them. Build an arts community with your child, not just with music, but also painting (finger painting was an early joy for me), sewing (my mother taught me to sew), building (I often went camping with my father), cooking (in the kitchen with my mother and grandmother, becoming a contributor to our family meal), playing an instrument (I played duets with my mother, fell in love with the cello)...etc. These experiences of mine occurred over many years.
This is the undercurrent of all my teaching: to seek and provide the same quality in both the classroom and choral setting.
BEST LINKS to find you and your work!
Follow MET Singers/Choral Arts Link on Facebook!
Make a tax-deductible donation via Choral Arts Link's Giving Matters page
Let Freedom Sing concert details
Read about MET Singers/Choral Arts Link in The Nashville Scene
*Each month The MAMAs features a Mother+Artist and their work in the world. Thank you Margaret!
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Hey MAMArtist* AMANDA MONTEI (she/her)
What are the ages of your child(ren), and where do you live?
My kids are 8 and 5, and we live in California.
How do you describe your art practice?
I'm an author and critic. My recent book, Touched Out, combines memoir with theory and criticism. But I'm trained in narrative, so I'm perpetually interested in story and how language shapes our perceptions of the world.
Who is your artistic crush? Mary Kelly
What is a superpower Mother+Artists have?
Caring for children teaches us to hold the possibility of another world in view, while also telling the truth about the world we live in now. It's an incredibly creative, intellectual, and political skill.
You have something exciting coming up! PLEASE SAY MORE ABOUT IT!
My most recent book Touched Out is the book club pick at Chamber of Mothers this November. Come join us for a conversation on November 29.
How did motherhood directly, indirectly, oppositionally or integrally influence this project?
Touched Out is about motherhood after MeToo, but it also explores more timeless cultural beliefs about who and what women's bodies are for, beliefs that are of course inseparable from how we collectively think about motherhood.
What are you currently reading or listening to that is giving you thoughts, feelings and reactions?
Margo Steines' Brutalities, a powerful exploration of violence, bodies, and care. And Jessica Elefante's Raising Hell, Living Well, about freeing ourselves from a life of influence.
I'm also currently listening to the podcast Scamanda, about a con woman and mother who convinced her community she had cancer to scam them out of money. It's a wild story about blogging, crowd-funded healthcare, and public personas.
Any message for Mother+Artists reading this?
Be relentless. Don't try to mold yourself into the image of the male artist. Create no matter what. You're already a good enough mother. Be a good artist.
BEST LINKS to find you and your work!
Instagram @amontei
My newsletter, Mad Woman, where I write about books, pop culture, motherhood, and feminism: https://amandamontei.substack.com/
Touched Out can be found anywhere books are sold
My website for more of my writing and teaching work
*Each month The MAMAs features a Mother+Artist and their work in the world. Thank you Amanda!
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Hey MAMArtist* MINNA DUBIN!
What are the ages of your child(ren), and where do you live?
My kids are 10 and 6, Berkeley, CA.
How do you describe your art practice?
Roller-coaster-y. I work in waves -- I either have the muse or I don't. And when I do, it's the most amazing feeling to have the words just rush out of my fingers. And when I don't, I am kind of sad with myself and grumpy. Oh maybe you mean, what is my art? I'm a writer--mostly memoir, some journalism, some poetry, some fiction. I write a lot with other writer friends, either at cafes or on Zoom. I will make up any excuse not to write, so other people help me to stay accountable to getting my butt in the chair.
Who is your artistic crush?
Dorothy Allison, her work transports and heals me.
What is a superpower Mother+Artists have?
For me, parenting and work feed and enhance each other. I have never-ending inspiration for my work from my family and the trials and joys of mothering. And my writing gives me a safe place to work through so much of what I'm feeling and experiencing in my mothering life. It's a symbiotic feedback loop.
You have something exciting coming up! PLEASE SAY MORE ABOUT IT!
My first book Mom Rage: The Everyday Crisis of Modern Motherhood comes out on September 19th. I've been working on it ever since my New York Times articles on mom rage went viral in 2020. I interviewed 50 mothers from across the country and around the world, and I also tell my own story of anger in motherhood. It's really the first comprehensive book on the what, why, and how of mom rage. I did so much research, but it's based in story, which felt important to me because I'm a memoirist--a storyteller, really--not an academic. I'm hopeful it will provide moms (and the people who love them) with relief and some ways forward.
How did motherhood directly, indirectly, oppositionally or integrally influence this project?
Hah! I wouldn't have had these experiences if it weren't for motherhood! Becoming a mother to my son just blew the roof off of me. I was so spun trying to figure out how to give myself what I needed while also trying very hard to be a "good mother." And those two things are in opposition in our society. A "good mother," according to current ideas about mothering, is one who basically has no needs and so she disappears herself. This book is kind of the culmination of a decade of examining the culture of motherhood in America and thinking deeply about my mothering experience.
What are you currently reading or listening to that is giving you thoughts, feelings and reactions?
I've been listening to the Serial Podcast's show The Retrievals, about a fertility clinic at Yale. Even though I only had one miscarriage, and was able to conceive pretty easily, I am very interested in infertility as a feminist frontier. I think birthing people's right to access free and safe fertility treatment should be part of the bodily autonomy fight, right next to abortion and gender-affirming medical care and treatments.
Any message for Mother+Artists reading this?
This book came from an essay that came from a list that was part of a funky public art project I did for 3 years. I wrote lists about motherhood and turned them into art pieces, then hung them up in public places. I did it because it was a way to write but in early motherhood I needed to make something with my hands. My advice to do whatever artistic acts you can manage that bring you joy, even if they are weird and quirky and quick. Everything can be artistic practice. And we never know where it will lead.
BEST LINKS to find you and your work!
Preorder Link for Mom Rage!
Mom Rage Book Tour Dates!
All my published writing including the NYT Mom Rage pieces
Check out the 150 lists from #MomLists
Follow me on Instagram
*Each month The MAMAs features a Mother+Artist and their work in the world. Thank you Melissa!
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Hey, MAMArtist* AYA OGAWA
Where do you live and what are the ages of your child(ren)?
Kids age 9 and 12 (very soon 10 & 13)
Brooklyn, NY
How do you describe your art practice?
I'm a theater-maker. I make plays in collaboration with people through a generative process. I write, direct, perform and translate plays from Japanese to English.
Who is your artistic crush?
That's a difficult question! I love Lynda Barry (graphic novelist). I loved Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings. I loved Harmony Becker’s Himawari House. I have so much love for the playwrights I mentor and am mentored by: Julia Izumi, Kathy Ng, a.k. payne.
What is a superpower Mother+Artists have?
I think mother+artists have the profound potential to time travel and nurture their micro and macro perspectives on life.
You have a show opening August 1 at Lincoln Center Theater! Congratulations! Can you tell us a tiny it about it?
I began developing The Nosebleed days after the 2016 presidential election through an exploration of failure. Eventually I turned to focus on what I consider to be one of the greatest failures of my own life, which was failing to honor my father’s life when he passed 15 years ago. My play is about coming to terms with both that failure and my difficult relationship with my father, in light of being an immigrant and a mother.
How did motherhood directly, indirectly, oppositionally or integrally influence this project?
I definitely would not have written this play had I not become a mother! The Nosebleed is autobiographical so there’s a lot of it that expresses and explodes the joy, chaos and frustration of the motherhood experience. The title comes from a particular nosebleed event of my younger son when we were visiting Japan that precipitated the emotional process of questioning my cultural identity, what I inherited from my parents, and what I owe my heritage in raising my children.
What are you currently reading and/or listening to that is giving you thoughts, feelings and reactions?
Lynda Barry’s book on writing “What It Is” and I’m stuck in the middle of “The History of Love” by Nicole Krauss.
Any message for Mother+Artists reading this?
Time is not linear. Identity is not singular. Ease comes when we can recognize the interconnectedness of the past and future and all of our selves and lives together. Also, it is ok to hire a babysitter just so you can take a nap. Your mental, physical and emotional health is as important as your child/children’s. Also, this time will pass.
Best links to find you and The Nosebleed?
http://ayaogawa.com/
https://www.lct.org/shows/nosebleed/
PHOTO CREDITS!
Top R: Aya Ogawa as their youngest son Kenya in The Nosebleed. Photo courtesy of LCT3 by Julieta Cervantes
Bottom L: From L to R Ashil Lee, Saori Tsukada, Drae Campbell and Kaili Y. Turner in The Nosebleed. Photo courtesy of LCT3 by Julieta Cervantes
Bottom R: Aya and their partner Irwin
*Each month The MAMAs features a Mother+Artist and their work in the world. Thank you AYA!
#themamas#Mother+Artist#AyaOgawa#LCT#LincolnCenterTheater#PhysicalTheater#TheNosebleed#MotherArtistsMakingArt
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Hey MAMArtist* ANN LEPORE
Where do you live and what are the ages of your child(ren)?
My kids are 8 & 11. We live with my husband in Mahwah, NJ.
How do you describe your art practice?
My practice is heavy on process; the more steps, the better. Complexity, risk, and curiosity are all important to me because I’m always learning. If something seems scary or difficult, then I know I should do it, because this is how I will grow. I’m especially curious about how culture is formed and how people inform each other through social interaction. I love going to a new place and feeling out the social vibe, noticing the divides, and digging into the social landscape until I figure out why people do what they do. This is a long way of describing that a big part of my practice involves conversation and storytelling. Becoming a mother changed the way I use time. Prior to having children, I really enjoyed toying with an idea for quite a while before executing it. I’d make plans for how the idea could possibly exist in any medium and then weigh which medium would be the right vehicle. That process sometimes took weeks or months. Once my time was compressed by the reality of caring for a helpless infant, I figured out how to make these same decisions much faster, like, as in hours.
Who is your artistic crush?
Tali Hinkis
http://www.lovid.org/
and Marina Zurkow
https://www.o-matic.com/
When I first met Tali, she and her husband were performing at The Kitchen as Lovid. She had her infant daughter in a baby carrier on her chest. During one part of the performance, she had to change the way she was moving her body to control an electronic interactive instrument that they'd invented. So she effortlessly slipped the carrier to her husband, Kyle and they swapped active parenting, mid-performance! Seeing this made me think I could do anything. Eventually, I found myself rehearsing a turntable performance with my son strapped to my chest, though I couldn't see over his little noggin to grab the fader, so I ended up with a sitter for the live performance. I have never met Marina, but would like to. She has this incredible plasticity for moving one idea out through multiple mediums and it always remains cohesive. Additionally, she uses animation in a fine art context, which is something I have a deep appreciation for.
What is a superpower Mother+Artists have?
Growing culture without permission, and I don’t just mean in a petrie dish! We’re calling it “mother” but whoever the primary caregiver is, this person is in charge of shaping another person’s social and emotional development. We are more influential to the next generation than the richest corporation or the most militant government. Culture is literally the hardest thing to change- it’s like moving mountains. Of course, as moms we joke about how our childrens' therapists will probably inquire about us, but I am at least 55% who I am because of my parents. My mother is a textile artist with the Irish gift of storytelling. She went back to school and got a Masters degree as a single mother and figured out how to support us. I've always thought she could do absolutely anything. My father is a race car driving instructor. As a kid, if I wanted to talk to him, I had to get on the creeper and slide under the car where I'd hand him tools or bleed the brakes. He and my mother introduced me to the physical properties of materials. If something seemed mysterious, I learned it was still accessible, if you had the right tool.
You have an ongoing project called FOODSTORE(Y) that has been traveling around NY and NJ! Can you tell us a tiny it about it?
FOODSTORE(Y) is a three-part process: Performance Exchange, Animations, Podcast. Basically, I'm dragging my kitchen table to public places, asking strangers to sit down with me for a meal, and when we're sitting together, I ask folks to tell me a story. With their permission I record their story to use as a reference for animations I create that focus on the non-verbal communication of my storytellers. These intimate gestures are then exhibited publicly and the audio of their stories is archived in a podcast.
Following the isolation of Covid, and global tilt away from democracy and human rights, it felt really important to refocus on what gives us our humanity, and how we can use simple things like public spaces and food to care for each other and re-establish our baseline as a society. Cooking for someone, nurturing them, and breaking bread are often used to help groups bond and has been used as a relationship-building tool by diplomats and activists alike. Feeding a stranger creates vulnerability for the listener, which matches that of the person who has chosen to have their personal story recorded.
The performance is a gesture of trust and respect, the animation creates a heightened awareness of our common language of non-verbal communication, and can exist quietly in museums, or projected in the same public spaces where participants first exchanged stories over a meal with a stranger.
I'm asking: Can hospitality be radical? Can parenting? It sounds simple but in reality my work process involves researching with storytelling archivists, cooking and interviewing as performance (the performance is documented), months of intensive animation work, followed by podcast production of the story archive. Throughout the Spring, Summer and Fall of 2022 I’ve been recording stories this way, and as of this writing I am recording in Spain! For the winter months I will be cozied up indoors, animating. In May 2023 I will be ready to take my kitchen table around and record once again. If you have access to a public space that could be activated by FOODSTORE(Y) performance exchanges and recordings, please reach out to me via IG or my website.
How did motherhood directly, indirectly, oppositionally or integrally influence this project?
All of these -- of course! And this describes the power of motherhood. It’s very real. What is also very real is how people treat women, especially mothers, especially in the U.S. This is a country with no real national maternity policy and so as you can imagine, the stories around motherhood and the labor force, many of these stories are about women leaving jobs to have children or even not being able to work because they have children. Antiquated but pervasive non-labor views often center around the idea that our power is in our ability to attract men sexually, just the right amount and not to much. Therefore women who are pregnant, or spending all their attention on small children are seen as less desirable and therefore less powerful. Thankfully, this is changing somewhat. At my own job I was counseled by a male colleague to wait until I had tenure before getting pregnant, otherwise I might not be given the opportunity. This is the long way of saying that the obstacles to doing ANYTHING while being a female primary caregiver are external. They don’t have much to do with actually having, or using, a womb, but rather how people in power feel about you using your womb. See: American women's recent loss of abortion rights. So yes, lots of opposition. But. I was determined to prove myself. So when I was pregnant with my first, I made lots of artistic commitments. I think I had a major exhibition or performance every month during my son's first year of life. My stress about how others might react to pregnant artists moved me forward even faster than if I’d had nothing to fear. Additionally, motherhood has made me very conscious of what I’m modeling for my children, and while most of the time they are oblivious to my projects, they seem to be very curious about FOODSTORE(Y).
What are you currently reading and/or listening to that is giving you thoughts, feelings and reactions?
I just bought On Whiteness because Nell Painter is in it and I think she’s just marvelous. My favorite podcast is Scam Goddess. Lacey Mosely has the energy I wish I had but I feel it transferring to me when I listen. When the pandemic first started I temporarily lost the ability to read long form anything. Books I’d already read and loved became an easier to read and Anne Patchett’s THE DUTCH HOUSE was my go-to. Other things I like to reread periodically: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and a compilation of essays called Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind; Concrete ways to Support Families in Social Justice Movements and Communities by Victoria Law and China Martens.
Any message for Mother+Artists reading this?
My kids are 8 and 11. I just figured out something that other moms probably already know: There’s chunks of demand on your productive time/headspace and they change! When the kids are 1-7, don’t expect to be able to give too much time. 7-14 feels like a different world, where you have much more time, and maybe 14-21 will be when you have even more? I don’t know, I'm not there yet. More importantly, there were so many other moms who helped me: first a group that I met through my husband’s band, then just two women at my job, then a group of writer moms and now The MAMAs -- it’s amazing! Other trailblazing art-parents are incredible resources. Even though we’re sometimes invisible, we’re actually quite powerful. If you don’t have a Mom+Artist group, go find another mom with a creative practice and help her. The rest will be magic.
Best links to find you and FOODSTORE(Y)?
annlepore.com
PHOTO CREDITS!
Ann LePore (in the red dress), visual artist and creator of FOODSTORE(Y):
Serving Gazpacho and bread, collecting stories at the Hoboken Museum;
Serving Butternut Squash soup, collecting stories at Healing Space, Newark, NJ as part of the Newark Arts Festival;
Serving icy strawberry soup, collecting stories in front of the Lanape Gallery, Staten Island, NY;
Animation of storyteller gestures exhibited at Kresge Gallery, Mahwah, NJ
*Each month The MAMAs features a Mother+Artist and their work in the world. Thank you Ann!
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BMPFest is happening now!
For a BMPFest pass and all festival details, please click HERE!
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Hey, MAMArtist* STELLA FIORE
Where do you live and what are the ages of your child(ren)?
Stella Fiore, mom to our precious one and only, a 7-year-old girl. We live on Staten Island.
How do you describe your art practice?
My writing practice is the art of choosing. I have to keep choosing writing. Over and over.
Who is your artistic crush?
As a kid, it was the Brothers Grimm. Now, Elena Ferrante. Never considered the connection there until just now…I also love Garth Greenwell.
What is a superpower Mother+Artists have?
I didn’t come into my own as a writer until I became a mother. The stakes got higher. My time became incredibly limited, so I had to buck up and write something good or just give it up. But, really, the transition into becoming a Mother+Artist was about becoming courageous. I think the superpower is finally witnessing and owning our power as women, and I wasn’t aware of myself as a force until I gave birth. Motherhood was the refining fire for my soul, which means that it was the refining fire for my work.
You have an exhibition opening at the Rutan-Becket House! Congratulations! Can you tell us a tiny it about it?
Using sound, installation, photography, collage, and selected excerpts, “Working Title” will be an immersive literary exhibition that brings the world of my novel-in-progress into physical space. It’s a world of the divine feminine and of mortal longings, of love and grief, cathedrals and skyscrapers, ocean crossings decades apart, and Southern Italian folklore and magic, all woven together by Venus who speaks in poems scattered throughout the text from her floating scallop shell in Botticelli’s pagan Renaissance artwork. The private, unseen, years-long process of writing a novel will also be made visible in the show, located in the gallery of a historic home on the grounds of Conference House Park in Staten Island.
How did motherhood directly, indirectly, oppositionally or integrally influence this project?
Motherhood has made me keenly aware of my own history. It has helped me to set my story into a much wider context, and deeply connect with my maternal lineage and all my ancestors. It deepened aspects of my book I was only skimming over before, and then all these physical objects I’ve saved and collected over the years became important accessories to the writing, talismans, even, and I thought they should be given time and space to be seen and honored.
What are you currently reading and/or listening to that is giving you thoughts, feelings and reactions?
Body Work by Melissa Febos and The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr. I also love the podcast This Jungian Life.
Any message for Mother+Artists reading this?
Keep choosing your creative work!
Best links to find you and "Working Title"?
http://www.fiorestory.com/working-title
PHOTO CREDITS!
Images of Stella Fiore, writer-in-residence at The Rutan-Becket House, and her ongoing creative research.
*Each month The MAMAs features a Mother+Artist and their work in the world. Thank you Stella!
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