Andie Powers: Making Art in the Notes App
What did you use to do during recess?
I remember that my eyes were always drawn to the ground. Grasshoppers, dirt, weird bugs, grass. I was fascinated with looking in every little crack in the sidewalk to see what was going on in there. I attended quite a few schools as a child (9 schools between Kindergarten and 12th grade) and each school’s recess brings back different memories, but I remember a lot of wandering and exploring in all of them.
Did you think of yourself as a creative kid? What does creativity look like for your these days?
Very much. My creativity was the one thing about myself that I felt extremely confident in. Creative writing and art were consistently nurtured in my family. My paternal grandmother was a fine artist, and my mom made everything art. Her meals, her home, her spirit. As a kid, I churned out little books, stories, and poems. I even sent them out to a few publishers, and boy do I wish I still had those 1980s rejection letters. I wrote newspapers about things that were going on in my life and mailed them to friends. I made mix tapes with collaged covers. I absolutely adored (and still do) starting a project and getting lost in it.
Creativity is….
something that wells up inside of you and feels like it’s going to burst out if you don’t start a project. Like butterflies in your stomach and bees in your brain.
How much time do you get to work on creative projects?
Very little. Honestly, as a full-time mom, I have roughly about two hours each day to myself. It’s anyone’s guess if I will read, exercise, clean, do laundry, finish some writing, make a Halloween costume, or lie face down on the couch. It’s a tough go, but I feel like it’s a short season and I know one day I will feel like I have too much time and not enough happy chaos. However, one benefit to being with kids during the time that I’m not working for myself is that there is always a creative project in the works. You forget how fun it is to just sit down and color a My Little Pony coloring sheet, until your six year old forces you to. Or put little animals on every cake you bake just cause it’s fun.
How did motherhood change your creative practice?
I very much have to plan if I’m going to get anything creative done. On weeks that I have deadlines, I plan out times that I will do each task, and tune out kids that are whining to their dad upstairs. I used to go work in a coffee shop before Covid. Everything takes about a year longer than it did before and my notes app is my greatest ally. Write it down, come back later. However, I have had to learn to be specific in my notes because I tend to forget what they are entirely. Recently I read a note that said “space crystals, let’s make the biggest noise ever,” and I’m still figuring that one out.
How does art enrich your life? How does being a mother enrich your art?
Art is everywhere, but we never slow down properly and really take a look. Being a mother allows—no, FORCES—us to slow down and see things through the eyes of a child. My daughter and I spent ten minutes examining a dead bee yesterday. We got to look so closely at his eyes and little wings and stripes. As a children’s writer this is amazing! It’s like going back to childhood with the perspective of an adult. We slow, we see, we write. Also, I can always ask for my kids’ opinions. Do they like this story? What should the character do? What would be funny?
When do you feel most creative?
Unfortunately, at about 11 at night, when I have to go to bed or I’m in for it at 5am. Sigh. I also tend to get really creative when I’m getting close to a deadline. Nothing gets those juices flowing like it being the day before it’s due. I wish my brain didn’t work like that but it seems like anxiety brings out the best.
What helps you make time and space for being creative? How do you avoid burn out?
There’s time for anything, just not everything. Making priorities has been important to me in making space for creative work. I have found that exercise and sleep come before creativity, and when I’m not prioritizing those, I start to stumble.
As for burnout, I am not sure that it is possible to avoid burnout. To avoid burnout is to not become overwhelmed, and in order to not become overwhelmed, we need to constantly be spinning plates, or just do absolutely nothing ever, which sounds terrible. As a full time mom and working writer, there’s no organizational plan in the world that will allow me to do everything perfectly 100% of the time. They say that being a mother is the equivalent of working 2.5 full time jobs—who can accomplish everything on top of our own job without allowing some wiggle room? I have learned that becoming comfortable with imperfection is key, and that is a constant struggle for me. Love keeps me moving when I feel burned out. Love for my family and love for my work.
Who would you love to collaborate with? What’s a dream project for you?
Julie Morstad, hands down. Her illustrations are so exquisitely detailed and full of life. I’d love to do a picture book biography with her. Also, Zachariah O’Hora. I have a funny picture book project that I’d be ecstatic to get his eyes on. His characters are so unexpected and bright.
What’s inspiring you outside of your own genre?
I love to read Middle Grade fiction. I think it’s such a sweet spot in writing and reading for children, when magic can still captivate them, but they understand the world on a more mature level. I hope to write a middle grade novel someday.
How would you like the world to see artists and mothers?
Supporting a mother is supporting a child. I always used to hear “happy wife, happy life.” I think it should be happy mom, although that doesn’t rhyme delightfully like the other. A happy mother is able to nurture the future. She has strength to do good work and invest in her kids. I wish the world could see that investment would bring forth such amazing things. We should nurture—AND PAY—mothers in their work (at home and in creative ventures or jobs) as we nurture children.
How can we support and encourage each other more?
In America, I think our patriarchal society makes women into enemies, when we are really our greatest allies. Our own insecurities create an atmosphere of animosity. We can’t take over the world when we are fighting amongst ourselves. We each should take a look within and make a choice to nurture our talents as strengths and our bodies as instruments.
If you had a million dollars to make the world a better place, how would you spend it?
There are many programs devoted to providing kids in the public school system across the economic spectrum with free and reduced breakfast and lunch, but no dinner. I would start a nonprofit to help provide a warm, home-cooked dinners to kids who might not be able to get one at home. Food and comfort are so important to growing brains and it’s not always within reach for every family.
If there was a movie version of your life, what who would you like to play you and what story do you want her to tell?
Oh my, I think that movie would be very boring. There would be so many kitchen-cleaning scenes. I hope that the story I would want her to tell has yet to happen in my life. Something triumphant and fun. Some sort of Wes Anderson-style ensemble comedy with lots of vibrant characters. I would want Carrie Mulligan or Michelle Williams to play me, cause they’re both fantastic and maybe kinda sorta sometimes a bit look like me.
If you could give everyone a small treat, what would it be?
A bouquet of sharpened pencils.
If you had a free hour, how would you spend it? What about a free day?
A free hour—I would go for a run. A free day—I might take a ferry to one of the islands and have a bit of a walk and a coffee, maybe sit and read for a while in the sun.
What would you bring to a favorites party?
I had to google what this is! Is this a new thing? I’ve never been to a favorites party. And I suppose I would bring Honest Organic Facial Oil. I have extremely dry skin and when I finally discovered this, it was cured.
Andie Powers is a writer for children. Her debut picture book, I Am Quiet, will be released by Bala Kids in 2022. She currently lives and works in Seattle with her husband and her two daughters. Andie graduated with a Bachelor of Art’s degree in writing, literature and publishing from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. In Boston, she interned at the prestigious Horn Book Magazine, which ignited her love for children’s literature. Andie is currently a content writer for Bravery, a print magazine that empowers kids to dream, learn, do and become their own kind of brave. She lives in Seattle with her husband, and two daughters: Alice, age 7 and Olive, age 2. Follow her on Instagram @andiegwpowers and buy her book here.
This interview was originally published in 2021.
The Sidewalk Chalk Talks are inspiring interviews with mothers who are making space for creativity and finding ease and joy in the process. The women I admire are bright, visionary creatures who love their work and their families. The different dimensions of their lives enrich each other and the world we share. I hope these conversations will inspire you and your work!