Eve Biddle, multi-media artist and founder of the Wassaic Project, New York: My mom [sculptor Mary Ann Unger] said to me: Don’t be an artist unless there’s nothing else you can be.
Each year, on Mother’s Day, I reflect on the endless reel of catchy maternal slogans that involuntarily cycles through my mind. A repeat offender in my own playlist of advice is an axiom from my grandmother, Barbara Sapienza, an abstract oil painter, for how to “unfuck” one’s life. (For the first 20 years of your life, you get fucked up by your parents. You spend the following 20 years “un-fucking” yourself. And then, if you’re lucky, you spend the next 20 years really living your life. You can grade your progress according to that curve.)
In anticipation of this weekend’s holiday, Hyperallergic asked artists to share the best piece of advice that they ever received from their mother, or a maternal figure in their life. Ranging from one-liners cautioning against pursuing a precarious career in the arts to affirmations of undying support, artists reflected on the maternal voices that edified their lives and crafts. We present over a dozen golden nuggets of advice below, some of which have been edited for length and clarity. May they harmonize with the cacophony of your own matrilineal slogans, as they have with mine.
