Finding Your Voice & Why I Started This Blog
An artist is an ordinary person who can take ordinary things and make them special.
-Ruth Asawa, visual artist
I know many of you feel me on this, the solo artist journey has some hills but also LOTS of valleys! Making art is amazing but often when you’re writing or creating original material and or performing as the lead, it can get discouraging trying to find aligned spaces to share your work. Questions start to arise like “Do we only create work to show others or do we make the work even if the room is empty?” And “what do we do with things or sounds made when no one else is there to listen?” Is it still worth it?
Earlier this summer I went with my husband’s family to go see an exhibit at the MoMA in San Francisco featuring the work of sculptor/painter/teacher/activist Ruth Asawa. There were two things that struck me most in viewing her retrospective, one how dang prolific she was and two the fact that she was a mother of six children. Six! And she was married!
I started this blog ten or so years ago because I wanted a place to talk about the contradictions, the pushes and pulls, the inner reflections of being a mother and an artist, of being a Black woman and a musician. I often talk about the fact that for most of the time while I was raising my daughter there weren’t any other women I saw in music who were also performing, touring and raising young children. It was mostly men and if they had spouses or children, the spouses (wives) were at home raising their children. It made touring and performing thrilling but also lonely and hard to negotiate. I had a desire to both be present as a mom and also a deep call to sing and connect with others through music.
While her circumstances were very different, Ruth Asawa gained popularity early on in her career receiving commissions and selling to large patrons such as the Rockefellers, The Whitney Museum and more. I still feel these kinds of artist stories ought to be centered and celebrated more often to inspire and reassure parents and families that creating thriving families in the arts are possible.
If you want to learn more about my family in the arts, you can grab a copy of my recent memoir Lost & Found: Finding The Power In Your Voice. Let’s continue supporting living music and art