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ARiM - Artist Residency in Motherhood #2

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ADAPTING TO THE SITUATION

The second week of my ARiM working period already passed. I started observing Lieve her behavior and especially her drawings. I find that very interesting but that is probably because she is my daughter, so I skip that part.

Before I started with ARiM I thought all sort of things to do with Lieve. One of the ideas was to travel with her, just like I did before but instead of let me guided by the moment, I wanted Lieve to be my guide. So on my first ARiM-day I opened the front door and I started to follow her. The romantic idea to see the world through her eyes, turned out in correcting her the whole time: “No Lieve, come here. We go on now. No, don’t stand on the plants of the neighbour, Lieve. Leave that broom, leave that jar, don’t hit the car. Come here.” She tried to look through every mailbox, into the houses of our neighbours. Finally, we walked one hour and made a circle about 200 meters around our home.

I thought, I don’t want to use this residency to involve my daughter in my art. I want to find a way to set up my art practice within the ‘restrictive’ conditions I’m in, because of motherhood. I decided to just start and made a number of drawings. It felt a bit weird to draw after such a long time. The what, why, how questions where there, but it felt good.

Charcoal drawing, the engine room (Atlas), April 5 2018

Pen drawing, inside of the hull (Atlas), April 7 2018

In the last two weeks, I spend about eight hours a week on ARiM, spread-out over five days. Eight hours in sequence feels like heaven for me, sometimes. But I know, if I had that time it would be largely filled with doubt. Doubting is a good feature but I tend to do it too much. So, I think the fragmented conditions are probably more effective for me, because in between the work moments I can think about my work and I can encounter something by chance. On the other hand, setting up my art practice during Lieve her naps requires discipline, it’s tempting to lean back a bit yourself in these rare quiet moments.

Nowadays, I like to surf on the website windy.com. On this website you can check a lot of different conditions about the oceans and the weather from all over the world. The swirling effect of the currents in the oceans are very interesting. Somehow it let me think of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. The actual invisible and the unpremeditated force of change. The direction you are heading is not always the way you choose to go.

Print screen of the currents at the Pacific Ocean, April 12 2018 (10.37 AM) / www.windy.com

Geplaatst op 18.04.2018.

Auteur:
Laura Schippers

Breda, Netherlands

ARiM - Artist Residency in Motherhood is founded by Lenka Clayton. It is a self-directed, open-source Artist in Residency to empower and inspire artists who are also mothers. An Artist Residency in Motherhood is the reframing of parenthood as a valuable site for art practice, rather than an obstruction to be overcome. The residency will take place in everyday life, in and around home.

For the next 3 months I will undergo this self-imposed artist residency in which I explore the fragmented focus, nap-length studio time and limited movement / resources and allow it to shape the direction of my work. These conditions are just about the opposite of the conditions I created for myself during my study at the art academy a few years ago.

After the birth of my daughter Lieve on August 5, 2016 I tried to continue my art practice several times. I found it hard to maintain my art practice in between taking care of Lieve, making money and creating my ideal art studio Atlas Initiatief (a self-sustainable ship to travel around the world, what will also function as an AiR for artists and scientists). So, I want to use the structure of this residency to set up an art practice within the conditions of today.

Follow my process here at witterook.nu.

From 1 April to 30 June 2018.

Updated every two weeks.