Mothers of Invention: Calendar Girl

Out of college, she worked for the Washington Department of Ecology and did some freelance projects, but she longed to be a solvent, independent artist—which is about the time that a friend suggested she move to cut paper as her major medium. “The first time I cut paper was a moment when all the synapses in my brain came together in harmony. It felt so good,” she says.

Her first work in the new medium was a series of apples that she turned into a book, using Kinko’s to make copies and ribbon to bind them. “I showed them in a little nature store below my apartment, and actually sold them!” she recalls. It was the moment when she believed that her love for the environment and her ability to make art could come together in a sustaining way.

Of course, it helped that her means were meager. There was that rickety VW Bug, and her $100 rent for half of a studio apartment. At thirty, aching for her own place in the world, she scraped together enough for a little house and began to put down roots, literally, by planting more than thirty trees on her urban lot. Another few years passed, and she fell in love. Although she’d never intended to have kids, she suddenly found her body “screaming” to become a mother.

Three years ago, she gave birth to Finn. Now, she is in full adoration mode—in love with her son’s quirky cooking sensibility (a true Northwesterner, he wants to make chanterelle ice cream), a new and zealous fan of children’s books, and an even stronger advocate of environmental survival. She’s mindful of what she’s lost—the hours to concentrate on a project, late nights, and parties with fellow artists. But she’s found positive ways of looking at a dilemma that can hamper and depress many artist-mothers, this one included.

Prior to having Finn, she’d begun work on a series that she’d committed for an exhibit in Los Angeles. When she returned to her drawing table post partum, she was mortified to find that a piece that had taken her two weeks to complete now took two months. After being initially downhearted, she realized she had to find a new way to work. “Think of the idea while nursing and then do it during nap time,” she told herself. She’s since implemented a few shortcuts in her old process, something the purist in her doesn’t entirely like. Rather than feel bad about it, though, she tells herself, “This is just the way I work now.”