Linda Varoma: Artist Q & A

‘Social Distancing’, 2020.

Firstly, tell us about yourself! Where do you live, what sort of art do you make and how many children do you have?

I am a professional photographer, living in the small town of Loviisa which is located on the South Eastern coast of Finland. I have two kids, a girl born in 2012 and a boy born in 2015. My art practice includes photography and writing, with hints of other mediums occasionally. Besides art I make freelance photography work for newspapers, magazines and businesses, portraits for families etc. and I also run a bespoke art framing service at my studio. So it’s quite hectic around here!

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 have a separate studio space, but all my editing and printing I do at home. It took me a long time to recover as an artist after becoming a mother and finding the routines that works for us, did not come easily. Actually it didn’t make sense at all, until I realised that I need to incorporate my experiences as a mother to my art and simply start making work about those thoughts and feelings that I dwelled on. Right now the pallet works, the older one is in school and the younger in daycare, so they don’t need me during the days. My biggest challenge right now, is how to balance between freelance work, family and art.

What does a typical day look like for you and how much time do you manage to carve out for your own work?

I hardly ever have a typical day! My days are very different. A few days a week, say 1 to 3, I’m in my studio working on frames for my costumers. 1-2 days a week I’m out doing freelance work or editing commissioned images. In between I make space for my own projects. My goal is to be able to do less but better payed freelance work and have more time for my art practice. Right now it feels like this tree just has too many branches and I need to start cutting loose those that I’m least passionate about. A lot of my artistic work is thinking about concepts and images and luckily I can do that while I’m finishing a frame for a customer! But more time for art would definitely be welcomed.

‘Our daily bread’

Have you come up against specific challenges as an artist and mother? What were they and how have you navigated these challenges?

One of the main challenges, that kind of influence a lot of things, is obviously lack of time. As an artist, I would need a lot of time that is not earmarked for anything specific. It’s difficult to be creative and productive on demand. I also find it difficult to connect with industry specialists, because travelling to galleries, events and workshops takes too much of my spare time, which is dedicated to my family. Attending a residency abroad is my dream, but taking off 2months or more and leaving my partner alone to deal with the kids and everything, is not a vital option. Even if he supports it, I would feel very bad just ditching off and the kids would probably be confused as well. I navigate these circumstances by concentrating on making work in my studio and at home, and accepting that finishing a body of work will take time. I try not to hurry my ideas, but at the same time, I’m like pushing all of my approaches forward evenly, until some of them finally reaches a goal, and I can be satisfied that I made something that stand out.

What is the best piece of advice you have been given?

To concentrate on making, not publishing, given to me by professor Anna Fox during a portfolio review last year. Advice like “be patient, your time will come” doesn’t really resonate with a creative person that has a striving flame. Anna’s advice was more hand on and gave me the justification I needed and it almost ordered me to continue making work, but also to be kind to myself and to accept that everything takes more time than before. 

Who are your role models? Who or what inspires and encourages you?

My biggest role model is every artist mother on the planet! I admire women who have managed to continue being artists and make work during the years of sleep deprivation, breastfeeding, constant feeling of emotional and physical shortfall and overall complete chaos. Finding the artist/mother community on social media has impact me drastically recently. I could stop feeling apologetic towards my work, when I realised there are loads of mothers like me making work about their experiences and there are other people being interested in that. And why wouldn’t there be, motherhood/parenting/kids are global themes that affects everyone of us in someway. Seeing the amazing work these mama’s are doing inspires me every day!

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?

Motherhood and maybe more accurately becoming a family with kids, has led to a very prominent switch of perspective in terms of what I make work about. Before I used to work on projects that was about something outside of me. I had something that either disturbed me or generally just interested me, a grand narrative, and I started to photographically and methodologically approach that theme. I remember often feeling very handicapped and restricted by my own systems. The gaze was turned outwards, whereas now I, like many other artist mothers already centuries ago have, turned my attention towards what is close to me, my kids, my body, my house etc. At first it felt awkward making so personal and intimate work, who could ever be interested in this?! But now it comes very natural and I feel like I’ve just discovered this massive basket of material, that just sits there waiting for me to pick it up! It also makes practising art easier, when you don’t have to travel to locations and come up with amazing ideas. Establishing a sustainable studio practice was my number one goal after grad school and while I still wonder what that exactly means for a photographer, I’m closer to it now as I have ever been before and that is because I have a family, not despite of that.  

If your child(ren) were asked “Tell me about your mother” what do you hope they would say? Are there particular things you are trying to show/teach them as an artist, a mother, a woman? 

I work a lot, being a freelancer means I constantly need to create opportunities for myself. My kids are used to me working a lot, and even if I sometimes feel bad about it I’m still pretty proud of myself. I manage a business that enables me to pay bills, I love my work and I’m still a very devoted parent. I don’t need to physically be present all the time, the kids have a very engaged father as well. I’m hoping that my kids learn, that you don’t need to walk the same, predefined path as everyone else is going, instead you can make your own path. You can, and should, do what you love even if it’s a struggle sometimes. That said, my kids know that I make pictures for a living and they think it’s a pretty boring job!

What drives you to continue to create work?

I don’t know actually, I just have an undefinable love for images and a need to produce the perfect one. In the past few years I’ve started to feel anxious about the fact, that while I carry out this need, I also produce new things into a world that is already full with stuff. I haven’t figured out how to cope with this yet. I love the feel of different paper materials and seeing my work printed big always takes my breath away. How to work around that, to continue making the kind of work that make sense to me and still pay attention to the ecological aspect is probably something that will drive me in the future.

LINDA VAROMA (b.1985) is a professional photographer and artist living in Loviisa, Finland with her partner and their two children. She holds an MA from Glasgow School of Art and she’s been exhibited both in Finland and through Europe. She was awarded the Victor Fellowship by Hasselblad Foundation in 2012. Her art practice explores the generic through the very specific, and through her autobiographical work she is documenting and revealing the tediousness and disturbance, but also the lightness and humour that comes with sharing a life with two kids. The core of her art making lies in her need to arrange and various sort of typologies can often be seen in her work.