Claire and Melissa honor the mothers in their lives by considering the perennial question of balance, and in this case, balance between being both an artist and a mother.
There are plenty of women and artists who either by choice or by forces out of their control do not have children, but there are also women who, by birth, fostering, adoption, marriage or other arrangements, become mothers, and some of those women also make the choice to be artists. How they make those choices and navigate those responsibilities are as varied as there are women in the world, but this episode will highlight a few, and Claire and Melissa talk with one mother and artist who was part of Augustana’s recent exhibition, 4 Artists 4 Visions: Claire Hedden.
Hedden is a practicing artist, who lives in Normal, Ill., and earned her MFA in ceramics from Alfred University. She has been part of exhibitions across the United States, and held multiple artist residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation. Towards the end of the exhibition at Augustana, Hedden came to campus to do a workshop with Augustana students, and gave a talk about her work. One main theme in Hedden’s conversations was her dual role as artist and mother, and these reflections were the spark for this episode.
Resources
Acorn, bolt, bubblegum, buttons, carbon paper, chalk, Christmas decoration, cigarette butt, coins (GBP, USD, EURO), cotton reel, holly leaf, little wooden man, sharp metal pieces, metro ticket, nuts, plastic “O”, polystyrene, rat poison (missing), seeds, slide, small rocks, specimen vial, sponge animal, sticks, teabag, wire caps, wooden block.
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