Ottawa mother artists are enhancing their artistic journey by connecting with one another and channeling their parental experiences into art.
Founded in 2019, the 44.4 Mother/Artist Collective is a group of 13 Ottawa artists who are also mothers. The collective hosts discussions and social events to engage with the challenges of combining artistry with motherhood.
Photographer Kristine Nyborg hosted the collective’s most recent event, a photography workshop held at the Ottawa Art Gallery, on Jan. 21.
According to the federal government’s 2021 Canadian Artists and Content Creators Economic Survey Report (CACCES), 18.7 per cent of Canadian artists and content creators have children.
“Women are still the primary caregivers of their children. Though we’ve come farther, we are expected to juggle more things as moms,” said Nyborg, who is also a mother of three children.
In 2022, Statistics Canada reported 52 per cent of women in Canada provided some sort of care to children or care-dependent adults, making women 42 per cent more likely than men to be a caregiver.
“It’s nice for us to have a place where we can share our struggles and critique each other’s work, and come together as a community,” Nyborg said.
Freelance photographer and mother of two children Alexa Mazzarello said she heard about the collective through Instagram and joined in summer 2022.
“With an unpredictable, up-and-down career, it was always hard for me to imagine how I could have a family,” Mazzarello said. “I was really interested when I saw other mother artists who were talking about how to make that possible.”
CACCES reported that 25 per cent of artists’ income from creative work can fluctuate by at least 100 per cent from year to year. Mazzarello said lack of support makes it challenging for mother artists to pursue their artistic work.
“There’s just not a ton of support from governments,” she said. “If I didn’t have my husband, it would be really hard for me.”
Nonetheless, Mazzarello said, “To be an artist requires persistence.”
“Nothing felt as good as photography did to me.”
At the workshop, Nyborg conducted a slideshow presentation with advice on photographing in different lighting and using composition techniques. She also discussed the ethics of photography and publishing photos online.
“We connect with our viewers when we reflect how we feel,” Nyborg said during her presentation. “[Photography] is a great way to communicate and come together visually.”
After Nyborg’s presentation, participants walked around the bottom floor of the art gallery and used the skills they learned to take photos and portraits of everyday subjects.
Content creator and single mom Kenza Zoughi attended the event with her seven-year-old son, who participated in the Ottawa Art Gallery’s free child-care services. The workshop participants’ children participated in arts and crafts activities and an interactive gallery tour.
“As a single mom, we don’t get a lot of opportunities to network or meet other people,” Zoughi said. “They give an opportunity for me and my son to do something fun at the same time.”
Nyborg said one of the main challenges for artists who are mothers is finding enough time to work on art.
“Time is just not yours anymore,” she said.
“Remember to breathe. Set your expectations really low,” Nyborg added as advice to mother-artists. “Every milestone is temporary. And it gets harder, but you get better at it.”
Nyborg said motherhood and keeping busy helps her manage her time as an artist and enhance her emotional creativity.
“You’re just connected to your emotions in a different way.”
Mazzarello added that motherhood and artistry share similar challenges and demands.
“Motherhood is wild and it’s full of ups and downs,” she said. “You have to be really resilient and creative, and I think art is all of those things.”
Nyborg added she is drawn to photography specifically because of its accessibility for anyone with a camera, whether it’s professional equipment or a mobile phone.
“If you make it harder for some voices to break through in any space, you lose those layers of knowledge and the ability to see the world from different perspectives,” she said. “Accessibility makes art more interesting.”
Nyborg said photography is especially convenient for people who have children.
“When people have kids is when a lot of them start photographing,” she said. “The situation that they’re in is so temporary and your instinct in a temporary situation is to pick up something and record it.”
In addition to learning from her practical photography tips, Nyborg said she hopes participants can learn to “let go” of perfectionism.
“I hope people can connect with photography out of a place of joy instead of performance,” she said.
Mazzarello said she feels “really lucky” to learn and share resources in a network of mother artists.
“It gives me energy, it gives me confidence, and it gives me hope that this is possible for myself and maybe even my kids one day,” Mazzarello said. “Community is everything.”
Featured image by Alexa MacKie/the Charlatan.
