Weekend Creativity: Mommying & Exploring Creativity of Moms in History ~ Ellis Island Moms, for Example

Weekends tend to actually slow me down with my conventional creative processes. I have commitments with children, commitments with friends, commitments with friends and their children. I skype with Katherine, who is in Scotland for college, and then – I do it all over, it seems.

This weekend the extent of my creative process was gathering materials, writing some poetry, taking photos, making paper roses as I watched holiday movies with my children and continuing to love editing historical photos.

For the last few days I have been completely into Ellis Island photos with my focus being women and then, naturally, the children of the women appear frequently.

I am curious about the creative process of these women. Did they sing? Did they write poetry and draw? Was their process about cooking and decorating and homemaking or were they so stuck in survival mode they didn’t use much creativity?

My belief is creativity is always in the mix.

Imagine crossing the Atlantic in a ship with so many other people with small children. Think what it would be like to be a mother with children in diapers, cloth diapers, nursing babies. How about a nursing baby, a toddler and say a four year old? The thought is unfathomable to me AND I realize these women had to be exceptionally smart and creative to make it all work.

Also heartbreaking to me is the women who made it all the way to the US and then got sent back, usually due to health reasons. Did they leave their children with husbands in the US, promising to come back when they could? Again, an unfathomable choice.

Just like the “obviously creative” women – the painters, poets, actors, writers, photographers – these women stir me and my creativity.

I look forward to what they nudge me to do.

This post is a part of Art Every Day Month from Creative Every Day with Leah Piken Kolidas. Each day in November we are encouraging each other's creative process.

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