The Mother Artist: Portraits of Ambition, Limitation, and Creativity

The Mother Artist, by Philadelphia writer Catherine Ricketts, weaves memoir with studies of the art and lives of modern and contemporary women artists who had children. Highlighting 20th-century artists like Ruth Asawa, Elizabeth Catlett, and Alice Neel, as well as contemporary Philadelphia artists like Alison Dilworth, Aimee Koran, Becky Suss, and Mickayel Thurin, The Mother Artist debunks the myth that to be an artist you must give up a family life, demonstrates the very real challenges facing women who aspire to rise in their disciplines, and explores the humanizing vision that caregivers bring to the making and shaping of culture. Rachel Yoder (Nightbitch) calls this book “brilliant and open-hearted,” while James KA Smith (editor, Image) writes, “Read this if you're a mother and an artist, to be sure; but read this, too, if you're human and hope for a different world.”