Mothering-ArtAdemics: ntersecting Identities of Strength

Using personal narratives as a feminist approach to produce knowledge, we explore theoretical positions that acknowledge the interdependency of maternal, artistic, and academic identities. This approach, while critical of societal structures that fail to support working mothers and young children, outlines the benefits of creative practice, teaching, and mothering rather than viewing the experience as a deficit. Through interwoven personal narratives we reflect on our journeys becoming mothers on the tenure-track and reinventing our artmaking practices as academic mothers. Each subtopic outlines individual experiences, offering the reader two different paths toward applying for tenure while creating a family. Through our narratives we illustrate the ways in which our art practices grew when becoming mothers, due in part to time constraints, a desire to work without toxic art materials, and with conceptual shifts that address mothering in our artmaking. In conclusion, we argue for increased structural change to support successful mothering academics that ranges from increasing partner participation around domestic work to federally funded, mandated maternity and paternity leave.