On being a mother and an artist

When I stopped by Lux Art Institute to see artist Claudette Schreuders, she had just finished up a Skype session with her kids and husband back in South Africa.

She was noticeably shaken and she explained that this is the first time she's been away from her children for more than a few days.

The mood set the tone for our podcast interview, which ended up being mostly about Close Close, Schrueders' latest series of work that, among other things, explores the tensions of being a working artist and a mom.

"Closeness can be both comfortable and stifling," said Schreuders, curled up on the couch in the plush artist studio at Lux, where she's the artist-in-residence through June 18.

She said that, as an artist who's work is pretty labor intensive, loneliness was an issue before, but once she had kids, she started going through the extreme opposite of emotions.

"As a mom, you have to fight for a bit of time on your own," she laughed.

Schreuders works in wood and uses the medium to capture and reflect identity and examine the complex relationships people have with one another. Push play to hear more.

Schrueders will give a talk tonight at Lux Art Institute at 5:30 p.m. She'll be in studio through June 18 and an exhibition of her work will be on view at Lux through July 30.   Big thanks to D/Wolves for letting us use their song, "Pretty Wolves," in our podcast this week.

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