Mother Gothel


*Edit
I originally posted some thoughts here about balancing kids and career.

I meant what I wrote, but I wasn't sure I was comfortable with something so close to my heart lingering in my blog archives, or worse, popping up on random Mother Gothel image searches forever and ever. :)

But if you read it earlier and left me one of the kind comments, thank you.

Comments

Ramona said…
wow! I can for sure understand the wanting to be challenged artistically, and having that driving force. Did you ever work for Disney? Thats my ultimate goal. I took a summer animation program and I loved it. Im currently working and waiting to see if I got in to the full program, and I cant wait to go back to school. I love having those challenges every day. wow, I kind of wrote an essay as a comment but I just want to say I understand eventhough I dont have children yet. Its very good that you are staying home with your children though, because they only grow up once! :)
8:01 PM
Unknown said…
God... Do I know how you feel. 2 children here too, boundless hapiness here too. No regrets but... a slight sting every once in a while.

I just wanted to say that: you're not alone. ^_^
8:03 PM
Charles Eubanks said…
I can SO relate to everything you're saying! Like you, I spent many years in a production environment (in my case, a major video game studio), which was fun and challenging and incredibly rewarding. But on the flip side, it didn't give me a lot of free time to be the kind of dad I wanted to be. Now I'm lucky enough to be a full-time dad, which is every bit as fun and challenging, but much more rewarding.

There should be a support group for people like us. Maybe this is it.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your story -- and your amazing drawing of Gothel!
8:44 PM
Aaron Ludwig said…
Great drawing, great thoughts. You're an amazing artist, but I think you made the right choice (I'm sure your kids agree). :)
9:04 PM
G. said…
A lovely drawing (as always.) I will always remember you as one of the most inspiring artists I went to school with at Sheridan.

It sounds like you're as awesome a parent as you are an artist. You have a very lucky family!

All the best. ^_^
5:40 AM
sarah said…
Hey thanks everyone for sharing your kind, supportive thoughts. It's good to be reminded that the career vs. life battle touches everyone.

And thanks so much Greg! I'll always remember peeking over your shoulder on the first day, seeing you sketching something amazing and feeling super nervous about my own art. :D

And nope, Ramona, no Disney yet. I'd love to someday, which is really the sentiment behind my post, but that day is probably pretty far off with the munchkins being so little. Best of luck to you, though. :)
1:03 PM
Kendra Melton said…
Tangled was amazing! I love it.
Great sketch, love the flow.
Life is full of conflicting choices but as long as you have no regrets and are happy that's all that matters :]
1:03 PM
Faff said…
Didn't get to read the post but I understand what you are going through. I'm at home with our 2 year old son and doing school runs with our daughter and starangely it's proving to be the making of me as an artist. I've stopped focusing on design work for others and started in on things I wanted to do back in the day. I'm working on two picture books for my kids, painting the local birdlife and joined urban sketchers to give some direction to the travel sketching I do on school runs and the like. Keep drawing, this is your chance to have the best of everything, art and kids.
6:31 AM
L Rossi said…
It's such a shared human experience.... having made a decision (or indeed having one made for you), not regretting how things turned out, but still having the small part of you that misses/thinks about the 'other way'. Often this only happens when we are confronted by something from 'other way', in your case, it was seeing a new Disney film.
I could ramble about my experience but I won't! :)
I love your artwork and am impressed at how much you can do (and how good it is!) whilst also looking after children at the same time!
Keep at it! :)
L
2:45 PM
sarah said…
Thank you also, Kendra, Laurent, Peter and Craig. It really is encouraging (and inspiring!) to hear from other artists who have a lot going on... and still produce beautiful work. :)
9:16 AM
Kim Herbst said…
I can only imagine how a career is with two children on top! I try and have a tiny social life with a full-time job AND freelance illustration on the side. Needless to say, my friends tend to get sacrificed one too many times :( You still manage to get out such great work though!!
9:18 AM
Jennifer said…
I didn't get to read your post about kids and working. But I can definitely relate with you and how it is a struggle. You want to be there for them every second, and you feel bad like they aren't getting enough of their mom. Sometimes I'd get the idea that I would just make my desire to do art disappear until a later year when my kids are grown. But then I realized I can't just make a deep instilled passion disappear! and I think it makes it worse here at home, because otherwise I'm all bottled up. Sometimes I need to just work and let it all out. Then there have been periods of time that I'll take a break and say "ok, I need child time and a break from art" At least that's the benefit from being a freelance artist (and that my husband is taking care of the main income) Doing jobs is just something I need to do for me sometimes, and that's ok. Good luck in finding your balance :)
3:28 PM
Jennifer said…
Oh, but I do always keep in mind that they're only young once and when they leave the house I'll have art all to myself for years to come. For me personally I don't want to miss out on the best thing in life which is raising kids. It's magic all in it's own :)
3:31 PM
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