Lita Albuquerque, Catherine Opie, Cassi Namoda, and More Reflect on the Juggling Act of Being an Artist and a Mother
As Mother’s Day approaches, CULTURED invited a group of artist-mothers to reflect on how raising children reshapes time, rituals, and the very language of making.
The life of a mother and the life of an artist are often depicted at odds. But the five artist-mothers assembled here offer a valuable counter-narrative. Motherhood, they say, has made them better artists, and their artistic work has made them better mothers. Inhabiting the two roles makes them more observant, efficient, open-minded, and ambitious.
“I have always thought of art-making as an act of love, and there is no greater love than being a mother—the ripples get larger and larger,” says the 79-year-old artist Lita Albuquerque, who is both a mother and a grandmother. “I realized the more I took on, the more I could take on.”
Ahead of Mother’s Day, CULTURED asked a variety of artists from multiple generations to reflect on how these equally demanding and animating roles have shaped their work and their lives.
