Creation Stories With Philippa Thomas
Creative play, radical rest and letting go of perfectionism.
Hi Friends,
Creation Stories is a monthly interview series that explores personal experiences of motherhood and creativity. Each month I speak to an inspiring human about the ways in which being a mother has impacted their self-employed creative work; the feelings, the joys, the challenges, the logistics.
This week I am delighted to introduce you to my friend Philippa Thomas! Philippa was in my class on day one of Edinburgh College Of Art in 2003 (!) and I felt two feelings towards her in quick succession; 1. Strong envy of her incredible natural talent and then 2. I wanted to be her friend. We walked through those four years of our degree side by side, spent endless hours drawing in coffee shops and talking. Today I remain both in awe of her natural talent, and grateful for her friendship.
I think you will enjoy Philippa’s beautiful work and words:
Hi Phil! Can you tell me about your work and/ or creative practice?
I’m a printmaker and visual artist, I make relief prints using wood or lino, inspired by my experience of landscape. I’ve recently been working on a body of prints based on drawings of the place I’m living; the commons, valleys and waterways of the Cotswolds. In this recent body of work I’m taking time to think about a personal experience of landscape, having in the past been driven to make prints of places that might appeal to others, it’s exciting and daunting to shake off those expectations and look at my work with fresh eyes.
Can you tell me about your family?
I live with my partner who is also an artist and our two year old son, who turns three in April. We have recently relocated from The Isle of Skye, Scotland to Stroud in Gloucestershire, England.
How did your path towards motherhood and/ or experience of pregnancy affect your work?
I stopped work a lot earlier than planned due to sickness and it has taken me a lot longer than I thought it would to really get back to it, I’m still working on that actually.
I remember feeling a bit like I was abandoning the work to go on maternity leave, I was glad to at the time but my anxieties about that were partly responsible for my not having had children earlier so it was a heady time.
Has your experience of birth impacted you as a creative person?
I’m sure it has, it impacted my body in obvious ways and then my mind in less obvious ways that I’m still processing. I make work about landscapes which seem like the complete opposite subject matter, but my sister told me recently that my latest print looks a bit like a giant vulva, it’s a tree. Birth and motherhood more widely has definitely impacted my approach to my work and the subject matter.
Were you able to give yourself maternity leave and what did that look like for you?
At the time we were living quite remotely and I had a home studio in the shed, that was great whilst pregnant because I could work around the sickness and tiredness. I took statutory maternity leave from around 7 months which was a welcome break from the hustle of self employment.
I didn’t get back into the studio until well past the end of my maternity leave. Our closest family were about an hour away, my partner had the usual two weeks paternity leave which is such a shockingly short amount of time looking back. The phrase ‘it takes a village’ became real very quickly.
Literally, how do you do it? How do you structure your weeks around work and motherhood. Who helps you?
My partner is an artist too, so we have a very flexible schedule and every week is different, which has its challenges but works for us on the whole. We moved to a new place to be a bit closer to my family and to childcare which has freed up some time, I’m learning the value of a routine. Having said that, as I write this we are packing to go to Iceland soon for three months tomorrow, for a family residency so that’s going to be an interesting experience. It’s a constant balancing act trying to provide stability and also keep up with work opportunities. We certainly haven’t cracked that one yet.
How has motherhood affected your relationship to creativity?
I was probably most creative when I was a child and everything since then has been trying to get back to that state of play. It somehow gets caught up with lots of other stuff as you get older. Spending more time around my child and others has bought that into focus for me.
How has motherhood affected your relationship to rest?
This is a difficult one, there’s the obvious answer about sleep and the lack of it. And then there’s the one I’m probably not qualified to write about society and capitalism and how napping is really a radical act these days.
How has motherhood affected your relationship to ambition and perfectionism ?
I have mostly found in these early years of parenting that It’s not always possible to make something good when you only have two hours to do it in, or you are too tired to fully focus. So it’s become more important to me to try and understand what I get out of the making process, If that is good then the hope is that in turn you’ll make good work, though that’s not always the case. I am a perfectionist by nature so there’s a lot of unlearning involved.
What wisdom or advice might you offer to a self-employed person working in the arts who is on the brink of motherhood?
I kind of wish someone had told me to give some thought to the parts of my practise or work that would fit with family life, that’s not easy to predict but I think talking to other mothers and carers who have to share their energy around is a good start. I was impatient to get back to it but didn’t realise that my relationship to work would be so changed. It has meant a lot of letting go, which can be frustrating but ultimately I know it’s making way for something better. That takes time and a good bit of patience.
There’s more and more work being done to amplify the voices of artist mothers which is heartening, Hettie Judah's Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood is vital, the accompanying exhibition is on till June DCA Dundee this year.
Philippa, thank you so much for being here! You can see her website HERE and follow her on Instagram HERE .
Take Care,
Katy x