Maternity Leave as an Artist
This is really a journal entry I’m sharing, not a how-to. I will share what I’m planning for my “maternity leave” as an artist, and other thoughts about it as well.
Well to start, there is no paid time off for me. I hesitate to make generalizations for other artist moms, but I would guess a lot of us don’t have that luxury. I work for myself, and so there is no one but me (and my husband) to decide how I want to spend the weeks and months after we welcome our second baby into the world. My priorities are to savor the time with him when he is tiny, attempt to take care of my healing self, and stay connected through quality time with my toddler and husband. I plan to do absolutely no work for one month, then ease back in with a bit of admin and marketing tasks in the second month. During the third month after baby is born, I will be doing holiday pet portraits, so I will be leaning on support from my family and babysitter (hopefully with a sleepy baby who is chill a few hours a day fingers crossed!).
I know my productivity will be limited for the next year, so this year I planned ahead and have made a few extra paintings for each collection that I can release with 2025’s collections. I’m super proud of myself for paring down my to-do list and goals in 2024 so I could accomplish this for myself in 2025. My main goal for now is to sustain my business and continue creating work that I am proud of, knowing that I can ramp up my productivity at the easel, marketing, and networking in the near future. These years with my little ones will fly by, and there are no words for how grateful I am that my career affords me the flexibility and control over my days (and years) so that I can cherish them.
With that said about my productivity and goals, one thing that worries me a bit is to get lost in the noise after a season of being quiet. Artists are always trying to spread the word about our art in a genuine way, and also to hopefully sell it. I plan to step back from social media like I did with my first son. I hope that my collectors and followers will still be there eager to learn about what I’m up to in the studio when I have time again to share more a few months postpartum. I am so thankful for each collector I’ve had over the years, and also thankful that many of them have subscribed to my newsletter! If you would like to make sure you don’t miss any news, please sign up here! I will continue sending monthly newsletters and collection announcements as usual, it is just Instagram where I will be much less active. Thank you for reading, and for your interest in my work and life!
P.S. I’m publishing this before I deliver our second baby, so this image is one month postpartum with our first!