Home style art
Keeping the creative fires burning as a stay at home mom
I do not currently have any children... at least that I know of. But I hear they’re a lot of work.
I’ve also heard that for all that is gained in bringing up babies, one thing you can pretty much kiss good-bye is your free time.
If this is true, then the Sheree Blanch art exhibition in the upstairs gallery space at MY Millennium Place for the month of May is all the more remarkable. While losing yourself in the lush, serene landscape paintings consider that the hand holding the brush belongs to a mother of two kids under the age of six.
If I of no-children status can barely find the time to mail birthday cards to my relatives, how does a mother of two find the time to stage a whole art exhibition? Or even engage in their craft at all?
For Blanch, a passionate painter who worked with husband Sean Bondaroff at local illustration/graphic design/printing house Toad Hall Studios prior to becoming a stay-at-home mom, it’s simple. She makes time, often at the expense of having her house look Martha Stewart-perfect.
That’s not her style, anyhow.
"We’re not perfect and anyone that thinks they are is crazy," she says good-naturedly.
The laid-back attitude serves Blanch’s current artistic situation well. Her easel occupies a corner next to the kitchen in the family’s open floor plan home in the Barnfield Farm area. Buckets of brushes sit next to dishes.
"I thrive on it," Blanch says. "I don’t need the peace and quiet. In fact I tried to make a little lonely studio, but I just couldn’t do it. I was just craving the action and life."
Positioning herself in the eye of the hurricane enables her to interact with her kids while painting.
"I’m watching them and they’re watching me and getting inspiration from me," she says. "I’ve found it works really well. I’ve got my bucket of water so I can put my paints down anytime they need me and go back to it. It’s a fairly free-flowing thing."
Now four and six years old, the kids are at the age where they understand what mom is doing over there at the easel. They even get their own canvases every once in a while. But Blanch recalls a time when it wasn’t quite so simple.
"I’ve had my disasters with my kids coming and painting over things," she says. While imitation is supposedly the sincerest form of flattery, it also led to a few uncommissioned wall murals courtesy of undiscerning toddler hands – daughter Shara’s nailpolish masterpiece, for one.
"I could never get mad at them for that because there I was," Blanch says, laughing. "She didn’t quite get it, but at least she wasn’t painting on my painting."
That’s something Pemberton-based jewelry artisan Tess Klein doesn’t have to worry about. It’s going to be a while before her 20-month-old daughter Talula is old enough to learn the intricate crocheting techniques Klein uses to create her luxe signature pieces.
Klein has been creating her unique jewelry for the past nine years, and you can expect to see her table at the farmer’s market again this year. She says she’s been able to maintain levels of production by picking up her craft whenever Talula closes her eyes.
"I’d like to push it further but I don’t have the time," Klein says. "Basically, when she sleeps I work.
"I usually work at night after she’s gone to bed, so I work late. I’ve always been a night person so it’s okay."
Klein describes her work as "a passion" which keeps her up on trends and fashion and allows a bit of glamour into the diaper-changing routine.
"I like it. I like to follow the trends. Instyle is like my bible," Klein says.
"I think that a lot of moms get out of the fashion when they become a mom. But you have to take care of yourself too," she adds.
But even with the passion and a relatively mess-free medium Klein still admits that staying actively creative while at home with a baby can be tough.
"You have to really want to do it," she advises. "There is time if you’re passionate about it. You can always find a little time."
Cary Campbell, an artist and graphic designer working out of her home in Black Tusk Village, has managed to find the time to pursue and market a wide variety of artistic disciplines while raising daughters Kianna, who turns 12 this month and Tazara, who just turned seven.
"Starting off it was really frustrating because a lot of the work was on the computer," Campbell says. "Trying to get your focus and concentrate on a computer when you’ve got a baby that’s crying is really difficult. Plus, both my kids had colic for four and a half months, which does not help!"
A detail-oriented illustrator prior to having kids Campbell says her style has evolved to become more efficient.
"Now, one hour is worth five hours," she says. "If I had to spend a month on a painting I’d probably never get it finished."
Campbell says making time for her art has never been too much of an issue. She comes from a long line of artists and aside from a brief stint working in a design studio in Hong Kong, she has always worked from home.
Her kids, rather than inhibit her artistic career, have actually enhanced it. Campbell has incorporated the girls’ drawings into T-shirts and stationery designs. Collaborative paintings featuring Tazara’s drawings are all over Whistler and will have a second show in the Millennium Place gallery this coming September. A mural featuring their work also brightens the construction site at the southwest corner of Franz’s Trail in Creekside.
"With art, it’s all about enthusiasm," Campbell says. "If you have a lack of it or you don’t know where to start, that’s when you need to go and be with someone who does it and loves it and it is their passion."
Campbell has obviously taken her own advice to heart. She’s married to fellow artist Paulo Lopes, also her design partner.
But for those fellow moms, who might gaze upon her colourful farmer’s market booth wistfully, Campbell advises getting in touch with an artist friend and finding inspiration by osmosis.
"If you’re sitting at home and you don’t have anything artistic around you, you don’t know where to start, that’s what you need to do. Go out and see what they do and get some encouragement," she says.
"You’ve just got to do it," Blanch adds. "There’s no magic formula. You just have to do it for your own purposes. I recommend painting for anyone."
