When her artistic profile expanded as rapidly as her pregnancy, Rachel found herself at a common crossroads for female creatives. \u201cI\u2019ve worked so hard for 10 years to get to this point,\u201d she says, cradling her seven-week-old son Hugo with his feet snug inside her trademark pom-pom socks. \u201cAnd I wonder if I can still feed this beast that I\u2019ve created?\u201d<\/p>\n
Crushing the myth<\/h1>\n
Women encounter strong societal pressure to choose between motherhood and achieving their career goals. But even from deep within the newborn haze, millennial artists like Rachel are already proving society wrong. In the past two months, she has not only scaled up her family, but is scaling up her business, too. With the right mindset, the creative dreams of mothers can still come true.<\/p>\n
To the uninitiated, Rachel\u2019s reality feels like a creative dreamscape.\u00a0Like her newly verified Instagram, the entry room to her home is a shimmering tinsel cave with every corner overflowing with vibrantly coloured pom-poms, garlands of toile and a glittering collection of miscellanea.<\/p>\n
An entire wall in her home explodes with metallic, coral-hued garments \u2013 one half of her new Disney collaboration. With a shining tinsel costume to represent each of The Little Mermaid<\/em>\u2019s iconic characters, the room sparkles like an underwater gay club on drag night. Rachel surveys the aesthetic and smiles: \u201cIt\u2019s all cooked, but I don\u2019t have to compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n With baby Hugo not yet two months old and the Disney collaboration on track for delivery within the week, Rachel is crushing the myth that motherhood hits the pause button on female creativity. She maintains that project deadlines help her keep momentum. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t have this big project, I probably wouldn\u2019t be producing so much.\u201d She pauses to lift her chestnut-brown sausage dog, Daisy, onto her lap, going on to add: \u201cBut, oh my god, this is The Little Mermaid<\/em> \u2013 it has to be amazing!\u201d<\/p>\n With constant repetition a key part of her process, Rachel has always been highly productive in her artistic practice. She has produced her iconic style through replication, modification and a \u201cmake it until you make it\u201d philosophy, taking faith that inspiration will come through creation and not the other way around.<\/p>\n For a woman who made 100 dresses in 100 days, Rachel was overwhelmed by the total shift in mindset she experienced after giving birth. \u201cI thought, \u2018Maybe I\u2019ll never make anything again because now all that matters is keeping him alive.\u2019 This thought was shocking to me,\u201d she reveals.<\/p>\n The same thoughts were still with her two weeks later, as she sat down in her studio to work on her first post-baby commission: A Logies gown for TV presenter Jan Fran. As Australia watched the gorgeous tinsel frock sail down the red carpet, no one would have dreamed that behind the scenes Rachel was struggling with her biggest creative challenge to date. \u201cThe idea of doing work was so overwhelming. All I could think about was him. It\u2019s crazy because making is something I do every day – and I was suddenly frightened,\u201d the designer shares.<\/p>\n According to artist, mother and author of Motherhood & Creativity<\/em>, Rachel Power explains that this experience of losing confidence is a common one. \u201cI think the number-one issue that I\u2019ve found for female creatives is that they struggle to give themselves permission to create art\u00a0because they feel it takes their focus away from their family,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Burke credits support from her husband Tom in getting her first project out the door. \u201cTom said, \u2018I\u2019ll take over and hold the fort.\u2019 There\u2019s a huge encouragement that comes from knowing I have him on my side,\u201d she says, glancing at Tom who is slowly crumpling at the other end of the couch after handling last night\u2019s feed.<\/p>\n The support of her online community along with visits from her own mum have also been vital in finding the motivation and additional pockets of time to work. A good breast pump has also given her more flexibility. \u201cIn some ways, it\u2019s allowed me to focus on my wellbeing as well,\u201d Burke says. \u201cI\u2019m going to be a better mum to him with the ability to create.\u201d<\/p>\n For Burke, it\u2019s become a little easier each week to find space for creativity. \u201cI\u2019m calling it a lifting of the fog,\u201d she says, although in the next breath, she acknowledges that her practice may never be the same as it once was. \u201cIt\u2019s like I have a different brain in my head. It\u2019s going to take time to learn how to use that brain.\u201d<\/p>\n Burke also found she needs to be more selective with her time. \u201cIn the past, I\u2019d spend time making these dumb headbands that don\u2019t mean anything aside from being visually pleasing. I\u2019ve realised now that I need to prioritise,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Power sees this reshaping of priorities as the biggest upside for creative mothers. \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful chance to refocus your life,\u201d she says. \u201cMums become more intensive, more focused and able to work much faster than they could when they felt they had all the time in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Burke\u2019s changing priorities also mean missed opportunities. For the first time in her creative career, Burke has had to say no, turning down the chance to collaborate with retail giants ASOS and Urban Outfitters and an invitation to appear in a reality TV series, which was filmed in LA the month Hugo was born.<\/p>\n Motherhood has forced her to refocus and be more selective with her battles but even though she knew it would be tough going, she never considered turning down The Little Mermaid<\/em>. As a child who grew up singing, Burke says, \u201cDisney is something I\u2019m willing to not sleep for.\u201d<\/p>\n But while The Little Mermaid<\/em>\u2019s unfinished tinsel gown calls her attention to the workroom, baby Hugo loses no sleep. Today, he snoozes comfortably in his father\u2019s arms, completely unaware of the way his mother is redefining society\u2019s expectations of female creativity \u2013 or that he shares his birthday with one very important blue tick.<\/p>\n WORDS by\u00a0Jessamy Ross<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Jessamy Ross is a writer, advertising creative, aerobics instructor, ex-cruise-ship entertainer and mum to two boys under three. She is passionate about championing the stories of strong women, long lunches, drinking untrendy lager beer and sneaking out to see live music whenever she can.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tinsel queen Rachel Burke manages to balance the demands of a skyrocketing creative career with the extremes of parenting a newborn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,99,92],"tags":[166,169,167,127,164,165,168],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":757,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744\/revisions\/757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Permission to create<\/h1>\n
![\"Rachel](\"https:\/\/da28rauy2a860.cloudfront.net\/wbwild\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/30232959\/COVER-1-of-11-214x300.jpg\")
Rachel\u2019s tips for keeping your creativity alive:<\/h1>\n
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