Mother’s Day Gifts and Books for Creative, Art‑Loving Moms

Plus the Novels That Relate to Creativity and Parenting

Mother’s Day has always been one of my favourite times of year — a moment to celebrate the women who shape our lives with love, creativity, and strength. Over the years, I’ve shared many Mother’s Day posts featuring artwork, gift ideas, and books that explore motherhood and creativity. This year, I’m bringing everything together in one place: the books that shaped my studio practice, the novels that speak to the realities of creativity and parenting, and the art‑inspired gifts I love to share with mothers, grandmothers, mother‑figures — or with yourself.

📚 New Novels That Relate to Creativity and Parenting

Stories that illuminate the emotional landscape of caregiving and artistic life

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about visibility — how easily women, especially mothers and artists, are frequently passed over and ignored. Not always dramatically, but slowly.  Artist mothers in middle age sense that the world has stopped looking, or maybe that we, middle aged artist moms, stopped insisting on being seen.

This year, several novels related to this idea of being a middle aged, obscure parent-artist. Each one held up a mirror to different parts of my creative life: the fears I’ve hidden, the past I’ve outgrown, and the flaws I’m finally ready to reclaim. Together, they are a very different group stories about women navigating the intertwined worlds of creativity, caregiving, and selfhood.

✨ Tilda Is Visible: The Shock of Realizing of Disappearing

When I read Tilda Is Visible by Jane Tara, I felt surprise at the fun combination of surrealist fantasy and stark reality. Tilda wakes up to find her pinky finger gone — a literal vanishing that mirrors the emotional fading many women feel in midlife. The tone is light‑hearted, warm, even playful, despite the depth of its themes. The book invited me to witness a woman finding her way back to herself. As a mother and an artist, I enjoyed the conflict and pull between artistic proclivity, parenting demands, and ageing.

✨ Why Tilda Rose Above Mona Acts Out and All Fours

Along the same themes, Mischa Berlinski's Mona Acts Out and Miranda July’s All Fours also feature mother artists struggling to pull themselves together. Both had moments of fun and brilliance, but they often leaned into a kind of vulgarity — provocative scenes and shock‑value choices that felt performative and overly drawn out. I admired their writing styles, but I didn’t feel as gripped by the story or characters as Tilda Is Visible.

Mona Acts Outs and All Fours attempt to stir outrage and, at times, disgust; reading Tilda Is Visible felt like an escape. Those books seemed intent on provocation. Reading Tilda Is Visible felt like a gentle break—quiet, thoughtful, and subtly provocative rather than loud or attention-seeking.

✨ Immaculate Conception: When Creation Chooses You

Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang is a futuristic novel involving an artist's skyrocketing career, art school friendships and a mysterious, impossible pregnancy. It's also a story about what happens when something unexpected (child or artwork) demands to be created — whether you feel ready or not. Artistic ideas arrive like that sometimes: intrusive, inconvenient, impossible to ignore.

The protagonist’s journey felt like a metaphor for the creative process itself and a mocking of the art world and profession. The novel encourages the reader to think about how creation in the human or artistic form can reshape you, whether you wanted it to or not.

✨ The Correspondent: When Old Identities Follow You Into New Work

In The Correspondent by Virginia Evans the protagonist is a former lawyer and law clerk whose memories unravel when she starts receiving letters from someone who knows her well. That detail struck me immediately, because before I became a full‑time artist, I also was a lawyer and lived in a world shaped by structure, logic, and professional identity. 

The novel explores how a mother who has built her life on certainty must confront the memories she’s tucked away and the narratives she’s constructed to survive. Even though she isn’t an artist, the letters she writes mirror a creative practice through examining the past, questioning inherited stories, and allowing ourselves to be changed by what is uncovered.

The novel reminds the read that the past doesn’t disappear just because we change careers or lifestyles. It stays with us in practical, sometimes uncomfortable ways. My years in law still sit in the background of my life as an artist —some habits, certain structures, certain ways of thinking. They don’t define my work now, but they shape how I approach it. Reading The Correspondent reminds the reader that former careers and old identities don’t vanish; they become part of the groundwork you carry forward.

📚 Mother’s Day Book Recommendations

Alongside artwork, I often share books that explore motherhood, creativity, and the lives of artist‑mothers. These books appear in past Mother’s Day themed blog posts and make wonderful gifts on their own or paired with a piece of art. 

Books on Motherhood & Creativity: My Favourite Reads Relating to Artist‑Mothers

The relationship between motherhood and creativity is endlessly rich, complicated, and inspiring — and it’s at the heart of both my studio practice and my academic research. Over the years, I’ve returned again and again to certain books that illuminate this intersection in powerful, surprising, and deeply validating ways. Below, I’ve gathered my favourite reads, along with highlights from my past blog posts on motherhood and art.

📚 My Favourite Books on Motherhood & Art

These are the books I revisit most often — the ones that shaped my Master of Fine Arts (MFA) research, and continue to influence my artwork and understanding of motherwork as a creative force.

• Ninth Street Women — Mary Gabriel A powerful non-fiction account of five overlooked female abstract expressionists who reshaped modern art.

• Inappropriate Bodies — Rachel Epp Buller & Charles Reeve Insightful essays exploring maternity in art and design, and how mothering shapes creative practice.

• The Story of Art Without Men — Katy Hessel A refreshing reframing of art history through the work of women artists across centuries.

• How Not to Exclude Mothers (and Other Parents) — Hettie Judah An honest, at times frustrated, look at the challenges artist‑parents face in the contemporary art world.

• Daybook — Anne Truitt A beautifully reflective journal revealng the challenges of motherhood with an artist’s daily practice, discipline, and inner life.

Together, these books offer inspiration, validation, and a deeper understanding of how caregiving and artmaking intersect — themes that continue to shape my own work.

📚 Books on Motherhood and Art (2022)

In my 2022 blog post, I shared the titles that deeply influenced my Master of Fine Arts (MFA) research and studio practice. These books explore how motherhood shapes creativity and the lives of women artists:

• Mother Reader — Moira Davey A rich collection of essays by mother artists and artworks about maternal identity.

• The M Word: Real Mothers in Contemporary Art Honest reflections from artist mothers navigating caregiving and creative work.

• The Great Mother (La Grande Madre) A global exploration of maternal imagery across cultures and eras from an exhibition shown in Milan, Italy in 2015.

• Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment The McMichael exhibition catalogue from the 2020 art show celebrating overlooked Canadian women artists — including painters like Regina Seiden, whose work I discovered through the show.

Additional favourites from this period include William Wegman Paintings (not related to parenting but still a wonderful book of paintings) and Mary Gabriel’s Ninth Street Women about women painters working alongside, but not receiving as much recognition as, male abstract expressionists in mid-century New York City. These books continue to offer insight into the emotional, intellectual, and creative intersections of art and motherhood.

📚 Articles, Books & Online Resources on Motherhood (2021) 

These were the foundational texts that shaped the early stages of my Master's of Fine Arts (MFA) research:

• Of Woman Born — Adrienne Rich A groundbreaking examination of the political and personal realities of motherhood from the political activist, artist and poet.

• A Life’s Work — Rachel Cusk An unflinchingly honest account of the struggles of early motherhood.

Key anthologies on artists and motherhood:

• Mother Reader — Moira Davey Influential writing on motherhood from artists and academics.

• The M Word: Real Mothers in Contemporary Art Essays by artists on navigating caregiving and creative practice once becoming a mother.

These readings helped form the foundation of my MFA thesis and continue to inform the themes in my artwork today.

✨ Why These Books on Art and Motherhood Matter

Across memoir, theory, art history, and personal reflection, these books explore the emotional, intellectual, and creative dimensions of motherhood. They also connect directly to the ideas in my Master of Fine Arts thesis, Motherhood Moments: Creating New Aesthetic Space, and continue to inspire the gestures, colours, and movements in my paintings.

If you’re an artist‑mother, a creative caregiver, or simply curious about how motherhood shapes artmaking, these books offer a powerful place to begin.

🎁 Unique Mother’s Day Gifts for Art‑Loving Moms

If you’re looking for something thoughtful and original, art makes a beautiful and lasting Mother’s Day gift. In my studio, I create pieces inspired by the movement, chaos, and emotion of motherhood — and many of these artworks make perfect gifts.

Original Paintings & Fine Art Prints

My abstract paintings and fine art prints capture the colour, energy, and gestures of family life. They make meaningful gifts for moms who appreciate creativity and want to bring more art into their homes. Many of these works appear in my Mother’s Day–themed shows, including Motherhood Unbound (currently on view) and Mother’s Day Mayhem (2024).

Art Scarves

My art scarves are wearable pieces inspired by original paintings. They’re lightweight, colourful, and easy to style — a perfect Mother’s Day gift for moms who love fashion and art. I’ve featured them in several Mother’s Day posts because they’re both practical and beautiful. Art scarves are available in silk or vegan polychiffon fabrics. 

Art Pillowcases

For moms who love decorating their homes, my art pillowcases add a pop of colour and creativity to any space. They’re one of my most popular Mother’s Day gift ideas because they combine comfort and beautiful artwork.

Gift Cards

If you’re not sure what to choose, gift cards let moms pick the artwork, luxury gift or accessory that speaks to them most.

💐 Celebrate Mother’s Day with Art and Inspiration

Whether you choose an original painting, a wearable art scarf, a colourful pillowcase, or a book that speaks to the heart of motherhood, I hope these ideas help you celebrate the mothers in your life with beauty and meaning.

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