EP 07 - At Home and in Concert: A Mother’s Relationship With Time, Musical Work Spaces, and Shifting Identities with Heather Powell

Aug 3

“How fun would it be to have a space where the kids could be kids and we could mother them, but we could also do our creative work with each other?! I don't know what that would look like, but it sounds like a world that I would love to inhabit.”
~ Heather Powell

In this episode, Kaitlin talks with Heather Powell about the guilt that comes to surface when balancing motherhood and more specifically, about how she balances her value of creating musical/live art with that of being a parent to one child, with another on the way at the time of this recording.

Heather is an orchestral violinist who works as a chamber musician and soloist. She is also the lead producer of “Before You Had A Name,” a unique live performance collaboration which marries chamber music, classical dance, and visual art to explore the theme of maternity, that Kaitlin spoke about in episode 6 with choreographer, Dani Rowe, who worked with Heather on that project.

Heather and Kaitlin talk about:

How Heather’s identity as a person and an artist shifted after having a child
Her struggle to justify the importance of being an artist when you have someone who needs you present all the time.
Before You Had a Name, Heather’s collaborative project with Choreographer Dani Rowe (also a previous guest on the Postpartum Production podcast).
Heather’s musings and exploration of the idea of bringing our children to work as an integral value in the absence of capitalism.
Heather’s definitions of creativity and postpartum.

~ Kaitlin Solimine. Host & Producer.
“In our conversation, like many of these conversations with artists that I’ve had, Heather mentioned at first that she finds it hard to justify her creative pursuits while mothering.
And at the same time, she answered the importance of keeping creative pursuits intact twice in this conversation when she said, first, creativity is fundamentally human. And next, Creativity is connecting with your soul and surroundings.
What is creativity to you?
I’d love to hear from you.
Send us an email: hello@postpartumproduction.com.”

You can link up with Heather through her:
Website: https://www.heather-violin.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heatherpower.violin/

Related resources:

More about Before You Had a Name: https://www.daniellerowe.net/#/beforeyouhadaname/
Listen to Episode 06 with Dani Rowe: https://www.postpartumproduction.com/episodes/06
More about Dancer Sarah Van Patten: https://www.sarahvanpatten.com/ @sarah.vanpatten

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