For today’s installment of ‘The Creative life’ I wanted to talk explore a mother/daughter relationship and how that contributes creativity and accomplishment and immediately thought of Veronica and Kim Foale. I’ve known both ladies for many years now and both bring strength and conviction to whatever project they’re working on.
Veronica Foale
To those of your blog readers who’ve known you for your writing up until now, can you explain a little about your new soap business, Veronica Foale Essentials? Have you always made them, and what drove you to take this next big step?
I needed a new creative outlet in which I could work around a toddler. Evelyn didn’t let me do any writing and I was going a little insane. She would scream when I sat at my computer, or slam the lid shut on my laptop. I’d always been interested in attempting to make things I use daily from scratch, but hadn’t quite made it yet. A blog idea for the new year became “The Year Of Making” – the idea being I would make things from scratch and blog the process (once my small angry toddler was sleeping). However, it didn’t work like that. I made one batch of soap and got stuck, addicted, obsessed. I made a lot of soap, and not much of anything else.
Eventually, people expressed enough interest and I decided maybe this was something I could do as a business. Veronica Foale Essentials was born soonafter and after many many months of testing recipes, we launched to great success.
How has your existing blogging community helped support this new venture? What has the feedback been like?
The feedback has been amazing, frankly. Lots of people interested, lots of orders, lots of grassroots promotion. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.
People ask me how I’ve managed to find such success in such a short amount of time and my answer is: because I spent seven years building a platform before I attempted to do anything else. I had seven years worth of friends, fans and followers when we launched. Their support has been invaluable.
Your mother is also creatively-driven – what did you learn from her as you were growing up about forging, and then fostering, a sense of artistic identity? Has that changed as you’ve gotten older, or become a mother yourself?
My mother always said if we did what made us happy, the money would follow. She is a big believer in following our hearts and dreams and making that into a career that works for you. Knowing she was going to support me no matter what was always helpful as I forged through the early days of creating my own brand, I guess you’d call it.
You’ve completed NaNoWrimo, blog, write and now make soaps – all while juggling the demands of small children. How do you decide what is best to spend your creative energies on?
I don’t really decide – I just kind of fall into things. The children come first, obviously, but my own happiness and identity is an important part of me being a great mother to them. NaNoWriMo was utter chaos last year as the toddler learned to walk, run and shout at me. I’m still not quite sure how I managed it. Blind determination, I think. Soapmaking is a great outlet for creative energy when I don’t have the time/freedom/energy to write things. Writing is still a passion, but it’s taking a back seat right now.
Kim Foale
Can you describe your ceramic work?
I have a varied ceramic practice as I am easily bored.
I make functional tableware with a twist, heavily textured cups and bowls with uneven rims that speak of the rugged landscapes of Tasmania. The mass produced tableware in the shops annoys me tremendously with their sameness. As consumers we have been tricked into accepting a uniformity of tableware that is boring in the extreme. The pottery that I collect and use myself is often woodfired and I like to hold a piece of ceramics in my hands and still feel the echo of the makers spirit in the work.
I also make sculptural work in direct response to social issues. This work is not pretty and rarely sells but by the simple act of making the work I feel less powerless in the face of world events that I am unable to control or shape to my liking.
What are your sources of inspiration?
My landscape is a constant source of inspiration, the stones whisper to me and demand to be used in the work and who am I to resist the stubborness of a stone. I am inspired by politics and by social media. Often a conversation on social media will result in some work being made in response. “Stop the Tampons” is a good example of a conversation on facebook and twitter about the degradation of refugee women in prison camps. That public conversation gained a life of its own and became a tangible sculptural response.
How did you impart to your children – and now grandchildren – the value and merit of following their own creative paths? Was it difficult?
I learned from my mistakes with my children. With Veronica, I was very quick to correct her grammar or spelling rather than just enjoy the stories she presented me with. It got to the point that Veronica stopped showing me her work because of my editor’s red pen. I am very pleased I didn’t ruin her love of writing. With my son David, a talented musician, I pushed him into studying music in college because I knew that if he followed a musical path he would be happy. He hated studying music as it turned a love affair into a chore.
I have learned that the trick with children is to not interfere with their creativity and to not push them in a direction that I think they should go.
With my grandchildren I am a follower, I am their enabler, I am their most enthusiastic supporter and giver of unconditional applause. I have all the tools of creativity here, paper, paint, pencils, mud, lots of books and music. But I am not going to suggest a course for them. I will just provide them with the tools for a creative life, as they ask for it, not as I assume they need it.
What are your future plans for your art?
To just keep on making. I need to make, otherwise I get super cranky and irritable. I don’t have any artistic plans other than to keep on doing what I am doing. I am the President of the Tasmanian Ceramics Association and that also keeps me pretty busy. I have two conferences to attend this year, The Regional Arts Australia Summit in Kalgoorlie in October and NAVA’s National Visual Arts Summit in Sydney in November. Next year I have an exhibition with political cartoonist Jon Kudelka, aptly titled “Mud and Ink” which will be held in the Long Gallery, one of the premier art galleries in Hobart in May. I am unable to think much further past that show, as it is going to be so much fun to make the work, but there also will be so much work involved in the making of the work. So I am pretty well flat stick until May next year.
Thank you so much ladies! I love both your work.
Pictures used with permission.
