I am enjoying getting to know our upcoming performer via the interview questions they are answering. Get to know Kathy Buckley below.
Where do you live, how many kids do you have, ages?
My two boys are 3 and 5 years old and we live in the western suburbs of Chicago with my husband, two cats, and a jar full of dead roly-polys that my 5 year old thinks have been asleep for the last two weeks.
How are you creative post children? How has it changed since pre-baby?
I really thought I was creatively dead for the first two years of my youngest’s life, and had almost come to terms with putting the old me to bed, but late last year I realized I wasn’t dead, just dead tired. My second son was a terrible sleeper and an incredibly accomplished puker so my creativity was focused on two things: brainstorming new ways to get him to sleep and developing new techniques for dodging projectile vomit.
I just had to change a few behaviors like force myself to sleep more/work less so I could find a little time and energy to make stuff and write. Once I did a little, I opened myself back up to do more.
When do you find time to create?
Sometimes I take a day off work or give myself a night out alone to get my creative on. Since the boys are a little older, I can sometimes sit and write while they play in the room with me. I just have to keep my eyes and ears open for any seriously dangerous activity. Here’s what was transpiring while I was writing this…
How did you hear about Expressing Motherhood?
I’m working on a book project with a friend and she suggested I submit. I had shared my list of chapter or blog topics with her and relayed a couple of the stories verbally so she thought Expressing Motherhood was a perfect outlet for my writing.
Do you have a background in acting/writing?
My background is in the visual arts, more than the written. I’ve spent my life painting, drawing, illustrating, and went to work after college as a graphic designer which progressed through the years into package design, then product design and product development. It’s been very creative work, but I had to find an outlet for the other stuff floating around in my head and started writing a number of years back. It’s all been personal work, nothing commercial.
And no, I’ve never been on stage. Gulp.
What creative projects are you up to?
The book project I mentioned above is a collaborative publishing effort with two other moms who, like me, had their first babies over the age of forty. We are developing an anthology for other 40-Something Mamas since this aging thing can really impact one’s experience with motherhood and self.
I’ve also been sketching out the concept for a series of portraits of twenty-first century women that will combine my visual and written aesthetic in what I hope will become a representation of today. That’s a mouthful. It’s still very much in development although I have the interview questions in progress and the women selected….they just don’t know who they are yet!
Oh, and I knit. As much as I can. It’s cheaper than therapy and keeps my hands moving even when my brain isn’t.
