I’m so excited to share this brilliant interview with Meg Walters, a contemporary artist based in Newcastle, NSW (Australia).
I spoke to Meg on a zoom back in the January holidays while my daughter was off daycare. She must have been as curious as me about Meg’s practice as she ran in my office to have a look. I was very grateful that Meg also has young children and understands the juggle. It feels fitting then, that she is the first Creative Parent on my Substack that isn’t me.
If you are reading this until Friday 30th May 2025, Meg has an exhibition on at Otomys in Melbourne, Metamorphosis. (I loved reading this interview with gallery director Megan Dicks). She’s exploring a place she grew up navigating. Bermuda! Like most of us, we have a relationship to Bermuda in the form of adventure stories, shipwrecks, and the Bermuda triangle, which seemed hot content for kids movies and shows in the 90s? However, Meg is engaging the whimsical sense of growing up on a remote island suspended in the ocean. The emotional connection of memory, after taking her daughter for a visit. Viewing this place through her daughter’s eyes.
I related so much to Meg’s interview, and I think most artist parents will. How does the groundhog-day routine affect creativity? How can art offer a coping strategy for life? Plus, Meg reminds us how important it is to find ourselves and do what we need to do as parents to show our kids how to take on the world.
Thank you, Meg for all your insights, and readers, leave Meg a comment to say hi and share your thoughts. Here is the Q&A of Meg Walters, contemporary artist and mother of two:
Can you tell us about your art practice — what do you create, with what, and why?
I usually think of myself as a painter, but in reality I'm a multi-disciplinary visual artist. My practice spans photography, drawing, ceramic sculpture, textiles and painting in oils. I think of being in this world as transient and interchangeable, so my artwork reflects this. I think we create the world we want to live in, in a tangible, psychological and metaphysical way. My artworks often depict dream states, altered realities and imagined worlds. The works can feel familiar at first, but the more you explore, the more you begin to realise that they are distorted or things don't quite make sense. A reflection will be altered, a foreground the wrong colour. I like to play with our perception of what we believe is real.
How did you get here?
It's been a very bumpy and long road to get here today. I studied fine art at University but as soon as I graduated the GFC hit and I left Australia, unable to get a visa. I to returned home to Bermuda for a couple of years where I landed a job at a Marine Biology Research Station and learned so much about my island. That was probably one of the most culturally and scientifically captivating times of my life. I hold on to that experience as a source of endless inspiration. I ended up moving to Sydney where I lived and worked for the next ten years in the music industry. It was a creatively rich time in my life filled with incredible music, interesting characters and a hangover or two. I ended up finding myself in the rainforest on a five acre property in the Tweed hinterland. We really lived in the wild there and that's where I had my first baby and launched my professional artistic career. Having a baby really lit a fire under my ass. It propelled me to ask the meaty questions about life. It was an incredibly difficult four years raising a baby in the jungle, but I'm glad I made it out the other side, a little bit more resilient maybe. I learned to let go of the fear holding me back from living my own creative life. I had nothing left to lose. I was in a period of extreme transformation and I knew it was the time to rebuild myself from the depths of losing myself in motherhood. I enrolled back in study at the Byron School of Art which was a brilliant mentorship-based program which enabled me to get started. After I graduated there I focused on how to kickstart my career in art. I really just doubled down and cold called people, emailed galleries and eventually found a couple of people who believed in my art. That's all it takes. I've never looked back since.
What inspires your work? Any particular design periods or philosophies?
I have a backlog of never ending inspiration. I read a lot of books, mostly about the human psyche. I listen to a lot of music, I write, I take photographs and I draw. These things provide me with more than enough fodder for when I head into my studio. I've been extremely obsessed with certain genres at different times in my life. In my teens I couldn't get enough of Surrealism, and then the Impressionists and Expressionists. I also have a soft spot for Pre-Raphaelites which I think you can probably see in my work. I love contemporary painters such as Peter Doig, Mama Andersson and Chris Ofili. I love that painting is having a moment again right now. It's an exciting time to be a painter, and an artist.
When did you know you wanted to become a creative? Was there an influential figure growing up?
As the daughter of an accountant mother and a finance father I don't know where I got my creative streak from. There certainly were no creative role models in my family growing up and my family never understood or supported me in my aspirations of becoming an artist. In fact, they actively tried to steer me towards a more stable job continuously. All I can ever remember wanting to be was an artist. It consumed me even from a young age. I've always been a deeply sensitive kid (and adult) and I think whenever I felt overwhelmed by life, emotions, the hugeness of it all, I would retreat back into my inner world and make sense of it by painting. It became a coping strategy and a way for me to channel my energy into something other than the body I was given which seemed inadequate at times.
What have been some of the highlights of your career, and what do you have coming up?
I try to celebrate all the wins but also not let them dictate my path. Same with the failures, they too deserve to be celebrated because it means I gave it a go. There have been so many tiny milestones as I've developed my career and I think sometimes those ones matter more than the big ones. That being said, I was recently a finalist in The Glover Prize and that was fantastic. It was amazing to be a part of such an esteemed art prize with so many contemporaries whom I really admire.
Who is in your family and their ages?
My partner, Simon, our two kids, Juniper and Verne (ages 7 and 4) and our dog Quincey.
Where are you based, and why did you choose this area?
We currently live in Newcastle, NSW (Awabakal). After living in various different parts of NSW we've settled back in Newcastle where we first met. Community is really important to us and we have a strong friendship base here so it was an easy decision to make. I'm also very fortunate to have a really strong group of artists that I share a warehouse space with. They are wonderful allies to bounce ideas around with and learn from.
Has becoming a parent changed your practice?
It hasn't so much changed my art but the way I make art. I don't have time to be indulgent. I don't have the luxury of waiting for that incredibly awe-inspiring moment to pick up my paintbrush. I need to have the discipline to show up every day and work regardless of how I feel. I think it's made me a better artist by doing this. I make so many more mistakes, but I also learn from them. The days I really don't want to paint are usually the days something clicks into place. I miss that expansiveness that comes with having free time, but it's made me more focused and determined painting within a short amount of time, which is what I currently have to work with.
What does your day-to-day look like, and how has this changed from previously?
Wow, so much change! I used to love slow, languid mornings with coffee and a book before I set about my day. Now my mornings are turbo charged with lunch-boxes, paw patrol, fighting kids and chaos. I drop the kids off to daycare and school and head into the studio around 9am. I never feel like I have enough hours in the day, especially when I'm in the studio. I audibly breathe a sigh of relief once I 'arrive' in my space. It feels like a complete reprieve from the mania of my life.Then it's school pickup at 3pm, homework, dinner, bath, bedtime and after that I usually collapse on the couch. It's a relentless groundhog-day routine that leaves little room for inspiration. I feel very fortunate that I still have energy to make art and that I'm still constantly filled with new ideas. I honestly don't know where it comes from sometimes!
Do you have any advice for creative parents?
I hold a lot of conflicting emotions when it comes to being a creative parent. I experience the Mum guilt for missing assemblies at school or not spending enough time with my kids. But I also know that I am setting a blueprint for them to understand the world by. I'm modelling that if you have a dream, chase it. They see me doing something I absolutely love. They intrinsically know that they too can chase their dreams too. I also know that I'd be a lost, sad version of myself if I wasn't making art. It's a juggle, it's unimaginably hard at times, but I know it's what I'm supposed to be doing in this life. I suppose my advice would be if you love doing something you'll find a way to do it. Don't let the world dismantle your dreams just because you're a parent now. If anything let that ignite them.
What are your thoughts on the approach of the art industry to parents? Have you found support or lack of?
It's been invaluable talking to other artist Mums. The few women out there who are making art full time and trying to raise young kids. Like a lot of jobs, there's no maternity pay, there's no superannuation or sick pay, so yeah, it's tough. I also have artist friends who have gone through it all and have older kids. It feels good to know that I'm not alone in my struggles; we're all going through the same thing. But yes, the world is not friendly to mothers in general, least of all artistic mothers. There is no support, no accommodation. We're expected to do it all. It comes with a cost. I've experienced burn-out, anxiety, insomnia from pushing myself too hard. I'm learning to be ok with life's natural ebbs and flows a little more. Finding rest in the slower times and working 15 hour days before a show is normal for me. I accept and run with the different levels.
Do you have a mantra/ quote that keeps you going?
"At least it's not twins!" That got me through my first year of motherhood. Now, with a little more experience, I often remind myself that I am the calm in their storm. I try to maintain my own sense of steadfastness and stability as I know the mood of the house can change on a whim. I need to hold space for these little tyrants to create the world I want to live in.
Website: www.megwalters.com
Instagram: @megwaltersworld