Sarah Rychtarova : Member Q & A
‘Connecting Reflex’, 2011.
Q: Firstly, tell us about yourself!
I live in the countryside of Angus, Scotland - 45mins drive to the hills and 5mins from the sea - in a farm cottage with my teenage son. I’m a multi-disciplinary artist using clay as my main medium for exploring not just ceramic techniques but combinations with other media eg. sound, painting, video and print-making.
Q: How do you continue to engage with your art practice alongside raising children? Do you have a dedicated studio space and routine, or do you work from home in between other things?
I work from home in the spare bedroom as a studio and a shed as my ceramic studio at the bottom of the garden. My other work commitments are very flexible, so on days when I don’t have to go anywhere, I dedicate them solely to staying at home and developing ideas, creating work or keeping on top of the business admin.
Q: What does a typical day look like for you and how much time do you manage to carve out for your own work?
On the flap of a cereal packet I came across a quote saying ‘No one ever looked back on their lives and wished they’d spent more time at work.’ As work can take up so much of our lives, my priority is to work with what I’m passionate about, and balance that time with nurturing family. I’ve a good balance these days as the family grows up, between home life and work as a ceramics tutor, technician and artist which isn’t really work to me because playing with clay is my passion.
Q: Who are your role models? Who or what inspires and encourages you?
Prehistoric mums inspire me in their matriarchal/matrilinear societies, where they were attuned to the cyclic nature of life, death and rebirth; bringing spirituality and creativity into everyday life including the lives of their children.
‘What the midwife said’ 2011.
Q: How has the experience of motherhood impacted your practice on an emotional/intellectual level? Has it made you view yourself/your work differently? Are there things that influence your work now that you didn't think about pre-kids?
The experience of motherhood has had a huge effect on my practice in that it initiated a return to my creativity for the third time in my life by attending pottery evening classes when my son was two years old. My life in the country with my son became the focus of my art whilst studying at college, which made things easier as I would have to leave art college every day at 2.30pm to collect him from school whereas most students stayed til 5 or even 9pm. Being a parent has also helped me recognize how my parents’ attitudes affected my own upbringing and hence my view of myself and interaction with the world around me. My developing art practice enabled me to explore these sensitive areas of my life and express them through a growing fascination with and research into the feminine principles of the visual cultures of prehistory, resolving any difficulties and turning them into positive experiences.
Q: What drives you to continue to create work?
For me, creating work is therapy, self-expression, letting go of responsibilities and social pressures by being in the moment and focusing on doing something that brings balance, happiness and healing. In sharing what I do, whether through teaching or exhibiting, I hope to create opportunities for people who engage with it to pick up on those qualities in the same way that prehistoric art has influenced me.
