Studio Mothers: Life & Art

Whether you’re a professional painter, an unpublished novelist, or a hobbyist knitter, creative mothers are full of plans and creative dreams. But the challenges of everyday life with children, a home, and perhaps a paying job, are sometimes overwhelming. Creativity gets shoved to the bottom of the list, or lopped off altogether.

For me and many others, turning dreams into reality is easier with a group of supportive friends watching your back. We benefit from a network of women who share similar challenges and success. Checking in regularly, and seeing the progress that others are making, is inspirational food for the creative soul.

This blog is a community where you can share our creative intentions and struggles — on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis — and receive support in making those goals happen. Going public with your “wishes” can be a powerful means to actualization. You can link to a website of your own, a Flickr site of your artwork, or post documents for others to read and comment on, if you like. Sharing in all things related to motherhood and creativity is welcome.

Check out our Weekly Creativity Contest (on hiatus as of 3/26/09) where you can win a $10 amazon.com gift certificate, as well as the Monday Page, where you can post your goals for the week. Every two weeks, we feature a creative mother from the blogosphere in a Breakfast interview (also on hiatus as of 3/26/09).

We look forward to meeting you! Don’t be shy — the more the merrier.

Miranda

---

~The Sisterhood~

A little bit about some of the regulars at Creative Construction (if you’re not listed here and you’d like to be, just let me know!):

---

Miranda Hersey Helin: I’m a freelance writer and editor, and the mother of five children ages 18 through 7 months. I started this blog to support the book I’m writing, A Mother’s Guide to the Creative Life, which is a practical guide to blending motherhood and creativity based on the experiences of dozens of women. In addition to writing and reading, I’m into photography, painting, gardening, and a variety of creative pursuits. And breathing. Breathing is good.

---

Cathy Coley: I am Cathy Coley, sahm, writer, sometime tutor for moderate learning disabilities, and sometime editor. I’ve published a few short stories and a poem here and there, used to do the Perf-Po thing around Boston. Current project is a youth novel for 8-12 year old readership. Long story short: it’s an overcoming bully/confidence tale. My home contains a blended family: two boys — one teen and one 10-year-old with Asperger’s Syndrome — from my first marriage, one infant daughter born at my ripe old age of 42, my husband, his mother, our spazzy sweet terrier, and my queenly old cat. I’ve at least dabbled, if not taken seriously at some point, in every art form except the ones I want to try like stained glass. I’ve sung, danced, acted, drawn, photo’d, painted, pottered, sculpted, metal worked, but never knitted! Admire it, love to wear it, but have no desire to actually sit still and do it. However, I have ‘friendship braceleted’ guitar straps for boyfriends in my crazy college youth. I love to garden, walk the dog, play with the baby and otherwise entertain myself and anyone in spitting distance. well, now, i guess significantly more than spitting distance. I miss New England, and live in coastal Virginia. The Beach is a necessity for my spiritual peace (piece?!) of mind.

---

Jen Johnson: I am the Mama in Mama’s Magic Studio. I’m also a proud SAHM of two kids (a boy and a girl 22 months apart), a published poet (in obscure literary journals that you’ve probably never heard of), an aspiring children’s book author (with two kids and an itch to write, isn’t this a given?), and a maker of beautiful things. For years, my creative impulses found their outlet primarily through my pen, but I’ve also caught the crafting bug, and since becoming a mother I’ve given much of my creative energy to handcrafting: jewelry, beadwork, quilts, hats, dolls, baskets — who knows what Mama’s Magic will make next! [Jen was also a guest for Breakfast.]

---

Brittany Vandeputte: I’m a playwright and aspiring novelist in Upstate South Carolina. Before I became a mom, I had time for hobbies like dollmaking, traditional Hungarian embroidery, terrier trials, West Highland Terrier rescue, and international travel. While I try to squeeze my hobbies in when I can, my first love is writing, and and that’s what I do in my (increasingly rare) spare time. I’m currently seeking an agent for my novel How Home Improvement Saved My Marriage, the story of newlyweds who buy the suburban tri-level version of The Money Pit, and wonder which will fall apart faster, their house or their marriage. My writing is heavily influenced by Absurdist Theater. If I was ever stranded on a deserted island, I would be perfectly happy (for a while anyway) with my now-dog-eared, water-stained copy of Edward Albee’s The American Dream. I share my house with my husband, our two boys ages two and six months, two West Highland Terriers, and two cats. [Brittany's personal blog here.]

---

Kristine Coblitz: I live in Western Pennsylvania with my husband, daughter, and our dog, a spunky black lab we lovingly call Sam. I spend my days taking care of my daughter and working as a freelance writer/editor while also squeezing in time to write a fiction novel. My published credits include a fictional short story, “Cold Feet,” which was published in Detective Mystery Stories. My nonfiction essays have been published in numerous regional magazines, and I have more than ten years of experience working as a technical magazine editor. I am also the past president of the Pittsburgh chapter of Sisters in Crime. In December 2007, I took on my most important and challenging job ever. I became a mom to a beautiful daughter. She inspires me every day. Visit my personal blog where I document my journey in finding the universal balance of motherhood, sanity, and writing.

---

Kelly Warren: I’m a jack-of-all-trades working mom of twin five-year-old girls. By day, I’m the Director of Student Life and Leadership Development at a very large college in Florida. By night I’m a wife to my hubby of nearly 14 years and mom to the girls, two cats, one dog, a random slew of fish and crustaceans and any other stray creature that happens along. I’ve dabbled in all sorts of arts, from needle arts to sewing to paper to photography to mixed media to jewelry, and have most recently settled on jewelry, photography and mixed media collage, in that order (if you can really call that settling on any one thing). I have a master’s degree in English and teach an occasional college English class while exercising my writing bones on my own blog and here on Creative Construction. Back in my old days as Assistant Sports Information Director at Florida State University, I was published fairly frequently in local and regional magazines and sports publications, but now I’m content to just send my words out into the blogosphere! And about that kooky picture…I had collapsed on the couch that afternoon battling a case of pneumonia, so my girls took the opportunity to style my hair for me. Rather cutting-edge, don’t you think?

---