I am better at working than living. I work as an artist and a parent. I have two preschoolers at home. Beyond the basics of food & sleep, they only need to learn to live well. We have no other job than to make beauty out of our community, landscape, and ideas.That means we don’t take walks, we go on “sound safaris.” The challenge of making each day full of wonder for all three of us is a matter of survival. When we travel, we go to the art museum before the children’s museum.

There was a point recently (probably when I took a walk after a long cry over spilt milk) when parenting hit me in the gut, and I admitted I liked it. I value constructing meaning and wonder with my family as well as working things out in my studio. I like to believe that art makes everything better, but I never realized that parenting might make Art look better. But playing hide and seek in a Richard Serra sculpture with kids changed my feelings about Richard Serra. Just like doing a puzzle of one of my installations changed how I saw my artwork. When my worlds as a parent and artist collide, work feels more like living. These are the lines I’m drawing between parenting and art.