While on holiday at the seaside, the typical dreadful polish weather, stuck inside most of the time as the wind and rain on the beach was ripping our heads off. Trying to make art in the meantime was not so easy. Spending lots of time at the pool to keep them active and away from screens took up half of our days. Trying to go to the beach at least once every day even with the horrible weather. But trying to make artsy imaginative play with the kids: mermaiding, sand digging, willow sticks tying and lace stitching was what I was left with making art with my kids. I am finsing it really hard to just open up to making art with them. I feel like I usually need my own space: quiet, focus, nobody talking to me. But I also wanted so desperately to “keep making art”, I decided making it in chaos was better than not making it at all. Here is what came from mothering/art chaos:
I generally let them take the lead and tried to open up to thinking like them, enjoying the holidays the way they enjoy them and trying to get in touch with the child inside, somewhere far at the back of my head
And then I tried getting them involved into a project I came up with, THE LACE WINGS combining willow and lace from Koniakow, which is generally about becoming someone true to myself, forgetting what the expectations of me as a mother, wife, daughter, homemaker, artist are, and just see who I can become when all of that stops weighing down on me. Also, to find the feeling of having fun with my kids rather than having to constantly focus on caring for them aka controlling their lives, constantly thinking: what should they be doing/eating/how much they should be moving?
I loved the family collaboration:
my son threading the lace through the willow sticks
my daughter sewing the willow wings base to the corset with me
my mum documenting the whole process
my stepdad helping to carry everything to the forest so we could take photos at night
