Mother's Project

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.