Hello, friends, and Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms and mom figures!
Thank you for signing up for my newsletter. I am really grateful that you did. At this stage in my life, I think twice before I subscribe to anything because my time and attention are so limited. Adulthood in general but motherhood, in particular, is so time-consuming, constant busy work and small tasks that need to be done daily, weekly, and monthly and then repeated again and again. So I’m very protective of my free time.
I choose the title ‘creative journey and motherhood’ because the creative journey is hard for any artist regardless of gender. It’s full of doubts and time-consuming but when you throw motherhood into this mix that demands every second of your energy and mental capacity that completely consumes you. Your creative journey will definitely be affected. I have been raising three wonderful, funny, and amazing children and I would not exchange a day for anything but it is really hard work. For me, as a stay-at-home mom who wanted to be an artist was very lonely. I could not explain to my fellow moms, my need to draw and create even if it’s not that good and even if it’s not making enough money. I felt stupid telling other moms that when the kids go to sleep I paint, or I wake up early to write. It has taken me a long time to accept that my journey as an artist is going to be slower than usual and that is O.K.
Although I am a ‘mostly’ vegetarian/ vegan, I do cook and eat meat. My sister introduced me to Asma Khan’s (a chef who runs the restaurant ‘Darjeeling Express’ in London) Cookbook. It is beautiful. I made the ‘Keema Pulao’ which was amazing. Its minced meat is cooked with basmati rice and carmelized Onion. It's simple and quick but with tons of flavors. I found the link to this recipe here.https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/sides/keema-and-dill-pulao Try it and tell me what you think?
In March I re-read ‘Perspolis’. I still love it! This book made me wanna be a writer and an illustrator and a storyteller. It's about the Iran Revolution but written from a little girl's perspective. It's cute and funny and so informative. Marjane Satrapi is truly a genius and one of my favorite authors.
Do you guys know about Skillshare? It's a subscription-based website that has tons of online classes. I recently took a class called ‘Pattern Play: Combine Illustrator and Photoshop’ by Dylan Mierzwinski. She is freaking amazing... So much detailed information that I had to go back to understand but I loved it. It's a wonderful class if you wanna learn about how to work between photoshop and illustrator.
Ok, that’s all folks. Thanks for reading. Hope you have a restful, bright, and sunny May. See you in June.
—Sumayya
I am going back to your first post and reading every one. I appreciate all of your struggles as a mom, as an artist, as an immigrant---wishing you much success. Check out WendyMac's Grownups Drawing Together classes ( your kids may already know about the kids program which Wendy started during the pandemic when all kids everywhere were forced to be at home),