As Susan Ruben Solomon wrote, perhaps the greatest struggle for a woman artist who has or desires children, is the struggle against herself. No amount of money, no amount of structural change can entirely resolve the fundamental dilemma for the artists mother, the seeming incompatibility of her two greatest passions. The effect is a divided heart, a split self, the fear that to succeed at one means to fail at the other.

Rachel Power is a freelance writer, editor, and artist, and mother of 2 from Melbourne, Australia. She has contributed to many publications including Mamma Mia, The Big Issue, Kill Your Darlings and The Age. She has worked as a court illustrator for Channel Nine, production editor of Arena Magazine, and is currently communications manager for the Australian Education Union Victoria.

Rachel is the author of Alison Raf ...