Conversations with artists about how becoming a parent transforms their life and work. From loss to creative reinvention, their stories reveal the complex and unique transformation career artists go through in parenthood. Hosted by Jess Wainer, RISD alumni, glass artist and lighting designer, turned solo parent and late-night storyteller.
George Sawyer, lead fine woodworker at Sawyer Made, discusses the evolution of his family business and how their rural Vermont studio enriches their children's lives in an interview.
30 Jun 2025
In conversation with Mark Slee
Mark Slee shares insights on balancing software engineering, music, sculpture, and parenting, exploring the time and energy demands of creative and academic pursuits in an interview with the host.
21 Mar 2025
In conversation with Chris Keating
Chris Keating is a free spirited, devoted father to a 10 year old daughter. He paints an honest picture of the messiness and beauty of parenthood and describes how his shifting priorities ostensibly lead to him ending his career as a performing artist/musician in the band, Yeasayer. He currently lives in Los Angeles, CA where he spends his time parenting, composing film scores and producing music. Helping his daughter realize her own creative visions brings him joy and fulfills him creatively.
21 Mar 2025
In Conversation with Jim Drain
Jim Drain is a widely collected American Artist who has received numerous prestigious awards and has exhibited extensively across the United States and abroad. In this conversation, he describes the arc of his career from showing in Chelsea galleries and museums, to teaching as a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design to his current life as an educator, parent and artist with a more private studio practice. His story illuminates the leveling effect of parenthood through presenting somewhat universal practical and emotional shifts that professional artists go through in their transition into parenthood.
13 Feb 2025
In Conversation with Bohyun Yoon
Bohyun Yoon is an imaginative, playful and brilliant glass artist based in Richmond, VA. His thought provoking work with glass employs its essential qualities to explore the human body and experience with a sense delight and wonder. Bohyun is an associate professor of glass in the Craft/Material Studies department at Virginia Commonwealth University. Bo shares intimate details about the struggles of parenthood as well as the enriching quality of taking on many roles: father, husband, artist, and professor. Family is a theme that infuses his current work.
7 Feb 2025
In conversation with Noah Breuer
Noah Breuer is a Professor of Print Media for University at Buffalo SUNY. His formal training in printmaking has served as the foundation of his current sculptural work that utilizes glass and textiles to explore the Jewish diaspora through his personal family history. Noah talks about maximizing his time and efforts as an exhibiting fine artist while navigating the logistical and financial constraints of parenthood. He shares intriguing ideas about how his fatherhood journey and personal identity may inform upcoming works.
7 Feb 2025
In conversation with Ivan Lee Mora
Ivan Lee Mora is a self-taught, independent artist based out of Los Angeles, CA. His concept-driven work leads to an ever-evolving process and use of materials including glass, clay, wood, and metal. The passion and heart Ivan puts into his work is apparent in his attitude about parenthood. The newest parent in the series, Ivan’s son was just a few months old when we recorded this candid chat.
7 Feb 2025
In conversation with Jeremy Mayer
Jeremy Mayer is an extraordinary sculptor whose primary medium is typewriter parts. He meticulously sorts and assembles these parts using purely mechanical joints to make human figures, animals, mandalas and more. He shares about his deep love of fatherhood, and the creative mentorship his daughter received being in the studio with him over the years. Jeremy presents a special 20-year portrait of parenting and art making in parallel. He is based in Sebastopol, CA.
5 Jul 2024
In conversation with Olivia Chen
Olivia Chen is an illustrator, painter and art educator in the Bay Area. She shares her long path back to her own art making practice as she raises her two children. In this conversation we examine how studios function as symbolic and literal foundations for one’s art-making practice. Olivia started and runs Liv & Chiu art studio, a youth art education organization in El Cerrito, CA.
5 Jul 2024
In conversation with Aoi Yamaguchi
Aoi Yamaguchi is a Japanese calligrapher living in Los Angeles, CA. Her life long pursuit of mastery in her art form coupled with her unique creative voice make her a dynamic powerhouse. Her unfaltering passion for her work leads her to maintain an active studio practice in tandem with the demands of full time parenting.
5 Jul 2024
In conversation with Shana Siegel
Shana Siegel is a scenic artist for film, TV and theater in New York City, and an illustrator. She shares how the physicality of her work, paired with the logistics of her field created a unique experience for her as a parent artist. In this conversation she dives into the creative strategies she’s employed to make it all work.
5 Jul 2024
In conversation with Kitty Clark
Kitty Clark is a documentary photographer based out of the UK. She explores intimate and vulnerable aspects of motherhood through her lens. In this candid conversation she opens up about her own experience from pregnancy into parenthood. Her words, and the images she creates, embody a similar quality of humility and heartfelt storytelling.
14 Dec 2023
In conversation with Kelly Rathbone Rebo
Kelly Rathbone Rebo is an extraordinarily talented ceramic sculptor and painter. As a mother of three, she shares her fascinating life story that weaves together different chapters of her art career with phases of parenthood. An adaptive global traveler, she presents a view of being an artist parent that includes travel, adventure and dynamic creative pursuits.
14 Dec 2023
In conversation with Liz Maher
Liz Maher is a painter, sculptor and improvisational quilter. In addition to being an accomplished artist she works as an Art Therapist. In this conversation we dive into the challenges of time management, work family balance, and the struggle to find enough time and emotional space to dive deeply into creative work. Always inspiring, Liz shares about finding new creative outlets through parenting.
14 Dec 2023
In conversation with Meryl Pataky
Meryl Pataky is a renowned mixed media sculptor who focuses on neon and is based in the Bay Area. In this conversation we discuss how becoming a parent has infused the subject matter, process and materials she uses. Meryl’s work encapsulates the complexity of motherhood through exploring themes of time, labor, and physical transformation.
14 Dec 2023
In conversation with Yu Kondo Reigen
Yu Kondo Reigen is a contemporary dancer, Gyrotonic Instructor, and pre and post natal educator. All of her work is focused on the body; how it moves, how it feels, how it functions. In parenthood, her work has been focused on bringing vital information about pregnancy and birth to the Japanese public.
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Podcast Authority Score: 29 / 100
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Engagement
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