In this episode of Mother And …, textile artist and mother Debbie Barrett-Jones discusses her weaving practice, which is rooted in process, intuition, and the long arc of caregiving. Debbie reflects on discovering weaving as a student at the Kansas City Art Institute, where the loom became an instrument for navigating the uncertainty of pregnancy and the evolving contours of her creative life. She discusses how the labor-intensive rhythms of textile work mirror the emotional push-and-pull of parenting - holding on, letting go, and learning to release.

Debbie also shares the story behind her large-scale photographic installations at the Kansas City International Airport, her collaborations with her artist sister, and the influential mentorship of Stephanie Leedy. For the Mother And … exhibition, Debbie created an installation that brings her loom, her process, and the imperfect, ever-changing nature of parenting into the gallery itself. Her reflections illuminate how maternal experience shapes artistic practice in both subtle and profound ways. This conversation is part of the Mother And … exhibition, on view at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center in Kansas City from September 5 through November 21, 2025.

In this episode of Mother And …, artist and mother Linda Lighton reflects on a lifetime of creativity, rebellion, and fearless making. A celebrated ceramicist known for her provocative and politically charged work, Lighton traces her path from hippie-era experimentation to a five-decade career that has explored joy, feminism, and social critique through clay. Her work - ranging from sensuous “divas” and chandelier installations to biting commentaries on gender, violence, and gun culture - transforms everyday symbols of domesticity into bold statements about power, pleasure, and the human condition.

Lighton’s artistic journey has been shaped by generations of women, including her grandmother, who founded one of the first art galleries in Kansas City in the 1930s, and her daughter, a career art specialist and currently Director of Research for Gagosian Gallery. As Lighton prepares for her retrospective, “Love and War” at the Nerman Museum, she reflects on motherhood as an act of courage and continuity. Collaborating with her daughter on the exhibition’s catalogue, she sees their partnership as the culmination of a generational dialogue about art, independence, and joy - a legacy begun in a Kansas City gallery nearly a century ago. This conversation is part of the Mother And … exhibition, on view at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center in Kansas City from September 5 through November 21, 2025.

In this episode, Mother And …, artist and mother Althea Murphy-Price discusses how her multidisciplinary practice - spanning printmaking, sculpture, photography, and installation - explores perception, appearance, and the cultural narratives that shape femininity. Althea reflects on how printmaking’s inherent metaphors of replication, mirroring, and generative matrices resonate deeply with her interests in womanhood and with her own experiences as a mother to two daughters. Her interactions with her daughters, especially those surrounding hair, adornment, and self-presentation, have increasingly infused her studio work with new materials, colors, and questions.

Althea discusses her pieces First Aid and Bed of Needles, both of which transform familiar objects, such as Band-Aids and bobby pins, into reflections on care, vulnerability, caution, and the tools women use to navigate the world. She also speaks candidly about balancing professional identity with caregiving, the importance of role models for Black women artists, and the ongoing evolution of her daughters’ creative lives. For Althea, motherhood has not constrained her practice; it has offered new metaphors, new rhythms, and a deeper understanding of the “and” that defines an artist mother’s life. This conversation is part of the Mother And … exhibition, on view at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center in Kansas City from September 5 through November 21, 2025.