Lynn Murphy
As an artist and yoga teacher, I specialize in holding spaces that honour the creative process within pregnancy and motherhood. After becoming a mother of two small children in the early 1990s, I experienced a rupture in my art-making process due to the demands of motherhood and an art world that questioned my role as an artist because of my maternal responsibilities. I found a new creative outlet within my own body through yoga, which I had discovered in my early 20s post art college in London. I retrained as a yoga teacher specializing in yoga for pregnancy, active birth, and the postpartum period with Janet Balaskas and colleagues in 1995-97. I went on to become the co-director of the Active Birth Centre alongside Janet. Since then, I have held space for women to come together in circles during pregnancy and postpartum, helping them to discover the creative process within this transitional journey that is Matrescence. Personally, this year, through stitching, wax sealing, and reassembling pieces in new ways, I have rediscovered my artwork and repaired the rupture that occurred decades ago. My making process is sensory and tactile, invoking a sense of touch, smell, place, movement, and light. As a short-sighted person, I have an eye for detail and a love for typefaces, motifs, and patterns. As a nana of two, as well as a mother, I am even more aware of the passing of time and aim to continue weaving together these different threads of artmaking, sharing yoga, and building community into a rich tapestry of experience."
