Artist Ruth O’Leary integrates parenting and farm life into her creative process

Artist Ruth O’Leary creates her work while raising three children and managing a small farm and livestock in Australia.

O’Leary maintains a studio where she produces intimate and subversive art. She balances this creative output with homeschooling her children and working as a university lecturer. She describes her artistic process as a constant state of mental and physical gestation that occurs alongside her daily responsibilities. She rejects the idea that creativity requires isolation or a quiet environment.

Instead, she works at her kitchen table while her children are present and integrates her interactions with her animals into her inspiration. She views her experience with her pregnant goats, rabbits, and chickens as a continuous source of ideas for new pieces and masks. O’Leary began her career using clothing as a canvas to express personal emotions. Her Fuck Dresses eventually earned a place in a curated show at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.

She notes that she often feels she cannot finish every project completely because the process of starting the next work feeds her ongoing artistic drive.