That’s Me!
By Anne O’Sullivan
Photo credits: Sonny and Kat Photography
EVER SINCE I WAS A CHILD, ANY CREATIVE ACTIVITY WOULD MAKE MY HEART BEAT FASTER. ALTHOUGH MY MOTHER WAS A WRITER, I HAVE STEERED CLEAR OF THIS MEDIUM FOR MOST OF MY LIFE AS WRITING WAS HER DOMAIN AND I HAVE NEVER WANTED TO INTRUDE.
A
lso, girls of my generation were not actively encouraged to be good at anything in particular since getting married and having babies was the measure of success. Now, since my mother has passed away, I look back and think that she perhaps felt quite compromised. She was a religious person who always wanted to do ‘the right thing’ which seemed to involve submitting to the opinions of men. At the same time, she was an intelligent woman who became a teacher and wrote several books.
In those days, after marriage, women had to retire from the workforce. In honour of her own mother, who raised 8 children, my mother established a women’s group. I am not going to pretend to be an expert on her convictions as I was a child at the time and was more concerned with jumping on the trampoline and playing footy in the park with the other kids in the neighbourhood than listening to her talk about her beliefs. However, I know that she was very interested in having the act of raising and caring for children by women recognised as an actual job. She was quite conservative in
I am telling stories about the domestic and often hidden lives of women through using imagery instead of words. her views and clashed with some feminist groups, particularly in her belief that entering the workforce and choosing to stay at home and raise children were both equally acceptable choices. I remember that she had a copy of Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch* on the bookshelf in her bedroom. When I went to browse through this copy, it had disappeared. Jumping forward 30 years, I became a mother myself. Although we are very different women from 2 completely different eras, my mother and I both share the character traits of stubbornness and creativity. Although my mother was a writer, confusingly, a girl taking a creative path was not actively encouraged in my family who were very conservative in that area. Girls were raised to be carers and boys were encouraged with their careers. Because I am stubborn, I continued to pursue a creative path to the dismay of my parents. Unfortunately, I think that some of the beliefs that I learnt as a child sabotaged my progress. Eventually, as a single parent, I became breadwinner, carer and mother which was an exhausting trifecta. During these challenging years, I engaged in late night painting sessions which helped me cope with the overwhelming demands on my time and energy.
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